Smiling instead of Smoking-HIV

The app was designed by scientists and clinicians in collaboration with people who smoke and have HIV. The research informing this app was funded by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. This specific app, the SiS-H app, is an adaption of our original app, the SiS app, to work specifically for people with HIV.

Each day, the app gives you specific tasks. These tasks introduce you to the app’s tools. Each task is timed specifically with regards to your chosen quit day, so that each day the app gives you the task most relevant to you that day. For best results, we recommend using the app every day for 8 weeks: for the 2 weeks leading up to your chosen quit day (prep work is important!), and the 6 weeks following your quit day.

Each day, the app will ask you to:
- Complete a happiness exercise
- Log your cigarettes – or confirm that you were smoke free
- Complete a specific task using one of the app’s tools. These tasks include, for example, specifying your personal reasons for quitting smoking, browsing strategies to overcome your smoking triggers, learning about benefits of quitting smoking, practicing to resist the urge to smoke, seeing how much money you saved by not smoking, etc.

Smoking is dangerous for everyone, and particularly so for people with HIV. If you are engaged in HIV care, smoking poses a much greater risk to your survival than HIV. In creating this app, we worked with people who smoke and have HIV. You will see their examples throughout the app. We also included a tool in the app about HIV care. It’s called “Life Steps”, and it is designed to help you with your HIV care.

Why work on happiness to quit smoking?

How we feel impacts what we can do. When we feel angry, stressed, or sad, it is difficult to take on a challenging task, like quitting smoking. But when we feel good, we have strength, confidence and energy to tackle hard tasks.

Science has shown that feeling happier:
- Decreases your urge to smoke
- Increases your confidence to quit smoking
- Gives you courage to act upon the fact that smoking is bad for you
- Makes you more creative, so that instead of lighting up, you can choose to do something else in that moment

In this app, we ask you to work on your happiness. Each day, we ask you to complete a Habit-Building Exercise. Completing these exercises gets you in the habit of noticing the good things in your life, and lets you draw strength from them.

Happiness can also help in the moment of craving. Try out the “Happiness Boost Activities” to feel happier within minutes. And, at the end of a day: a happier life is a happier life! That’s why we believe in smiling instead of smoking.

Scientific Evidence Supporting This App

You can read about our scientific work on this app here:

Hoeppner, B. B., Siegel, K. R., Carlon, H. A., Kahler, C. W., Park, E. R., Taylor, S. T., ... & Hoeppner, S. S. (2022). Feature-Level Analysis of a Smoking Cessation Smartphone App Based on a Positive Psychology Approach: Prospective Observational Study. JMIR Formative Research, 6(7), e38234.
https://formative.jmir.org/2022/7/e38234

Hoeppner, B. B., Siegel, K. R., Carlon, H. A., Kahler, C. W., Park, E. R., & Hoeppner, S. S. (2021). A smoking cessation app for non-daily smokers (version 2 of the Smiling Instead of Smoking app): Acceptability and feasibility study. JMIR Formative Research, 5(11), e29760.
https://formative.jmir.org/2021/11/e29760

Hoeppner, B. B., Hoeppner, S. S., Carlon, H. A., Perez, G. K., Helmuth, E., Kahler, C. W., & Kelly, J. F. (2019). Leveraging positive psychology to support smoking cessation in non-daily smokers using a smartphone app: Feasibility and acceptability study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 7(7), e13436.
https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/7/e13436