We are developing and testing smartphone-based stop smoking support for people who are pregnant.
Smoking during pregnancy causes many health problems for babies before and after they are born. NHS pregnancy stop smoking support includes specialist counselling and Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) delivered by a trained advisor. This support is effective, but not many pregnant people use it. Therefore, we need to explore different ways of delivering this support.
This project will create ‘eSupport’, a digital support package designed to help people stop smoking in pregnancy. This would include help to use NRT, and possibly vapes (if these become recommended in guidance). eSupport will be designed for use on its own and as an ‘add on’ to existing NHS pregnancy stop smoking support.
We will:
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Review studies to find effective ways of helping people who smoke in pregnancy to quit by using digital support.
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Work together with people who have experience of smoking in pregnancy, experts on stopping smoking, and digital support experts, to develop eSupport. Offer this support to people who smoke in pregnancy and use their feedback to make it better.
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Test the refined eSupport package in a randomised controlled trial to see if it helps people who smoke in pregnancy to quit, and whether it provides good value for the NHS.
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Test different ways of promoting eSupport in healthcare settings (via text messages, maternity notes apps or midwives) to learn the best way to maximise awareness and use.
Programme Workstream Overview
You can also download a copy of our programme workstream overview as a PDF.
We have worked closely with people with experience of smoking in pregnancy and with disadvantaged backgrounds to develop this project.
The UEA investigators involved with this project are: Felix Naughton (Principal Investigator), Joanne Emery, Lisa McDaid, Pippa Belderson, Caitlin Notley, Zarnie Khadjesari, Ruth Sanders, Allan Clark, and Matt Hammond.
Collaborating Universities and people: University of Nottingham (Tim Coleman, Sophie Orton, Jo Leonardi-Bee, Miranda Clark, Matthew Jones, Anne Dickinson), University of Leicester (Sanjay Agrawal), St Georges University (Michael Ussher), Birmingham City University (Elizabeth Bailey), Smoke Free App (David Crane and team).
To read more about the development work which informed our eSupport programme, we recommend the following three papers:
The project started in June 2024. If you would like any further information about the study, please get in touch.