MapMySmoke app
Dr Tom Kelsey and Dr Robert Schick
School of Computer Science and School of Mathematics and Statistics
With the increasing availability of smartphones, we sought to investigate whether:
- an app could be deployed with smokers intending to quit
- knowledge of craving and smoking behaviour helps smokers quit
Approximately 11,000 people die in Scotland each year from smoking related causes. While quitting smoking is relatively easy, maintaining a quit attempt is very difficult. Pharmaceutical treatments improve abstinence rates, however they do not address the spatial aspects of smoking behaviour.
Since smartphones can log spatial, as well as quantitative and qualitative data related to smoking behaviour, we can support smokers by first understanding their smoking behaviour and then sending dynamic support messages post-quit.