My Quit Route: Clinical efficacy and implementation perceptions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the clinical efficacy and implementation perceptions of a novel smoking cessation app: My Quit Route.
IRAS ID
249081
Contact name
Stephanie Dugdale
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Breaking Free Group
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 3 days
Research summary
Due to a reduction of Stop Smoking Services in England as a result of financial cuts, the role of GPs and pharmacists has increased to include smoking cessation support alongside prescribing nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). One such NRT which is gaining in popularity is electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). As part of a public health initiative, Birmingham City Council pharmacies have started prescribing e-cigarettes to service users to help support them with their quit attempt. This research proposes to integrate within this service a novel digital smoking cessation intervention, the My Quit Route app (MQR).
Pharmacists will be recruited to issue support, and this design will use quantitative analyses to assess the clinical effectiveness of MQR, alongside prescribed e-cigarettes. This research will also investigate the perceptions of service users and pharmacists towards smoking cessation support delivered in pharmacies.
Clinical data on service users' smoking frequency, cravings, and recovery progression will be collected on a database by the MQR app. Ethical approval to use this database for research purposes has already been granted by London South-East REC (REC Ref: 18/LO/0286, date: 29.03.2018). This study will also examine whether there may be any differences in outcomes between service users who download the app and set up their account with support from their pharmacist, and those who choose to download the app without help from their pharmacist. Following this, approximately 15 interviews with service users and 15 interviews with pharmacists will be conducted via telephone to understand perceptions towards the delivery of smoking cessation support in pharmacies, and of the MQR app more generally. It is this qualitative aspect of the study that this ethics application primarily seeks obtain approvals for, given the MQR database has already been approved.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0222
Date of REC Opinion
7 Sep 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion