BACKGROUND
There is strong evidence for the effectiveness of addressing tobacco use in healthcare settings. However, only a minority of smokers receive cessation advice when visiting a hospital. Implementing smoking cessation technology in outpatient waiting rooms could be an effective strategy for change, with the potential to expose almost all patients visiting a healthcare provider without preluding physician action needed.
OBJECTIVE
To develop an intervention for smoking cessation that would make use of the time patients spend waiting in a waiting room by passively exposing them to a face-aging public morphing tablet-based application (app), to pilot the intervention in a waiting room of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) outpatient clinic, and to measure the perceptions of smoking and non-smoking HIV-patients to this intervention.
METHODS
We developed a kiosk version of our three-dimensional face-aging app “Smokerface,” which shows the user how their face would age with years of cigarette smoking. We placed a tablet with the app running on a table in the middle of the waiting room of our HIV outpatient clinic, connected to a large monitor attached to the opposite wall. A researcher recorded all the patients using the waiting room. If a patient did not initiate app-use within 30 s of waiting time, the researcher encouraged him/her to do so. Those using the app were asked to complete a questionnaire.
RESULTS
During a 19-day period, 464 patients visited the waiting room, of which 187 tried the app and 179 completed the questionnaire. Of these, 139 (77.7%) were men and 84 (47%) were smokers. Of the smokers, 55 (68%) said the intervention motivated them to quit [men, 45 (68%); women, 10 (67%)]; 41 (51%) said that it motivated them to discuss quitting with their doctor [men, 32 (49%); women, 9 (60%)]; and 72 (91%) perceived the intervention as fun [men, 57 (90%); women, 15 (94%)]. Of the non-smokers, 92 (98%) said that it motivated them never to take up smoking [men, 72 (99%); women, 20 (95%)]. Among the other patients, 102 (22.0%) watched another patient try the app without trying it themselves; thus, a total of 289 (62.3%) of the 464 patients were exposed to the intervention (average waiting time, 21 min).
CONCLUSIONS
A face-aging app implemented in a waiting room provides a novel opportunity to motivate patients visiting a healthcare provider to quit smoking, to address quitting at their subsequent appointment and thereby encourage physician-delivered smoking cessation, or not to take up smoking.