In a crowded lecture hall, if a student knocks elbows with a neighbor to draw out their phone, a professor would dart a stern glance from their podium. But at the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, Dr. Tanya Schlam would offer only encouragement for study participants.
The center recently conducted a study to explore whether playing smartphone games could help smokers distract from nicotine cravings.
According to the center’s website, researchers wanted to determine whether smartphone games could help smokers distract, suppress their cravings and increase their chances of quitting.
Thirty people trying to quit smoking participated in this study. All of them received five counseling sessions and four weeks of medical treatment with nicotine patches.
Half of the smokers were given a smartphone with common mobile games to compare with the other half who were not. Participants were instructed to play the games when they felt a smoking urge and report the strength of that urge beforehand and afterward.
Despite treatment, seven to nine of every 10 smokers who tried to quit would end up reaching for cigarettes again, Schlam, the study’s principal researcher. She said she hoped to find out whether mobile games could be another solution to getting patients closer to success.
“Coaching and using medication improve people’s chances of quitting,” Schlam said. “This study looks at whether using smart phone games can further increase the percentage of people who successfully quit.”
Schlam noted that by playing mobile games, participants are likely to get into “flow,” a mental state where people fully immerse and lose track of time. She also said if mobile games do help smokers control the cravings, other kinds of video games will also be effective.
“Video games do an excellent job of making the challenge of the task match your abilities and that leads to flow,” Schlam said. “Also, video games challenge your mind and occupy what we call ‘cognitive work space’ so there is less room to think about urges to smoke.”
This theory also differentiates video games from other forms of self-entertainment, like music or movies. Though these might help some people, music and movies challenge people’s mind less fully, induce less flow and cause less distraction, said Schlam.
“Someone who wants to quit could experiment and find which activities, or which particular games, best distract them from their urges to smoke,” Schlam added.
The study is a pilot study on a small scale. If the results look promising, the researchers will plan a larger study.
The research lasted from October 2014 to May 2016. The data analysis is still in progress and the result can likely be expected within the next six months.
