Published on Authors of this article:. Background: Despite the steady rise in electronic cigarette e-cigarette uptake among young adults, increasingly more young people want to quit. Given the popularity of smartphones among young adults, mobile-based e-cigarette cessation interventions hold significant promise. Smartphone apps are particularly promising due to their varied and complex capabilities to engage end users. Methods: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, we interviewed 12 young adults who used e-cigarettes and wanted to quit.
We inductively derived themes using the framework analysis approach and NVivo 12 qualitative data analysis software. Results: All participants agreed that a smartphone app for supporting cessation was desirable. In addition, we found 4 key themes related to their preferences for app components: 1 flexible personalization being able to enter and modify goals ; 2 e-cigarette behavior tracking progress and benefits of quitting ; 3 safely managed social support moderated and anonymous ; and 4 positively framed notifications encouraging and motivational messages.
Some gender-based differences indicate that women were more likely to use e-cigarettes to cope with stress, preferred more aesthetic tailoring in the app, and were less likely to quit cold turkey compared with men.
Conclusions: The findings provide direction for the development and testing of app-based e-cigarette cessation interventions for young adults. Regardless of the reason for e-cigarette uptake, an increasing number of young people have indicated a desire to quit.
Between and , Canadian young adults who used e-cigarettes indicated that they were planning to quit in the next 6 months [ 5 ]. In the United States, Moreover, a similar study conducted by Berg et al [ 8 ] found that Providing interventions to help support reduction and cessation of nicotine dependence associated with e-cigarettes is a promising way to help young adults in their cessation journey.
