Frontiers in Public Health (Oct 2015)
An mHealth intervention: Associations between Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs for physical activity and longitudinal smoking related behavioural data.
Abstract
Background Physical activity behaviour is considered as a satisfactory additional aid method for quit smoking programs. Moreover, laboratory based studies provide strong evidence that physical activity acutely reduces cigarette cravings. An mHealth app (Physical over Smoking: Ph.o.S.) was developed to be used as a support tool for quitters to manage their cigarette cravings and help us testing the acute effectiveness of exercise on quitters under real-life conditions. Aim Aim of this study was to examine the associations between three explanatory variables of TPB-PA (attitudes, intention and perceived behavioural control for physical activity behaviour) on 3 smoking related response variables (number of cigarettes smoked, number of relapses and number of cravings), over a 3 month follow up period after quit smoking. Time, group and interaction of group X time were also examined. Method A quit smoking program (3 weekly sessions) which incorporated physical activity promotion applied to smokers who aimed to quit smoking. After the quit day each participant assigned randomly to a group of users of the mHealth app or to a group of non-users. Users received a short training to use the Ph.o.S app when experience cigarette cravings. The Ph.o.S app suggested short physical activities as a way to manage cravings. Forty four quitters (19 females) were assigned to a group of app users (n=25) and to a group of non-users (n=19). All participants completed the TPB - PA questionnaire immediately after their quit day and after that they reported their number of cigarettes smoked, number of relapses and number of cravings the last 7 days, at 3 days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after. Results Perceived Behavioural Control for Physical Activity (PBC-PA) behaviour predicted the number of relapses and cigarettes smoked for a follow up period of 3 months. Higher PBC-PA indicated lower number of relapses and smoked cigarettes during the 3 month follow up period. Time trends of cigarettes smoked and number of cravings was significantly different between groups. The number of cigarettes smoked didn’t increase as fast in users group as in non-users group, whereas cravings decreased faster in non-users group. Conclusion The results support previous literature suggesting that a possible mechanism behind the beneficial effects of exercise on decreasing smoking behaviour might be the increased perceived behavioural control over exercise that has an effect on the control to smoking behaviour. Moreover, using exercise to manage after quit smoking cravings can delay further smoking behaviour relapses.
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