BREATHE FREE: Smartphone Videogame-Based Incentives for Smoking Cessation

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking remains the number one cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Each year, one third to one half of smokers attempt to quit at least once; however, approximately 94% of quit attempts fail. A number of interventions have been developed to help smokers initiate and maintain abstinence. Unfortunately, even though most smokers express a desire to quit, relapse is the most likely outcome. Thus, it is not only critically important that more effective interventions be developed to reduce relapse, but it is also a primary public health goal to ensure that evidence-based smoking cessation interventions be made widely available, and at a low cost, to smokers. One of the most powerful, evidence-based behavioral interventions for smoking cessation is contingency management (CM). CM for smoking cessation consists of delivering incentives (typically money) contingent on objective evidence of smoking abstinence (e.g., carbon monoxide [CO] levels in