Finding it hard to stick to New Year\u2019s resolution to quit smoking? Take a heart, a new app-based game may help you achieve that.<\/p>\n
The game\u2014Cigbreak Free\u2014works like a regular smartphone game, with players having to complete tasks to progress through levels and gain rewards.<\/p>\n
In the game, players have to swipe a certain number of cigarettes to break them within a time limit.<\/p>\n
However, it also incorporates a combination of 37 behavioural change techniques, including showing the player the health consequences of a behaviour, gaining points for grabbing healthy items, or providing virtual financial incentives, to help individuals quit smoking, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re essentially trying to \u2018gamify\u2019 health messages and behaviour change techniques as a way of embedding them in a person\u2019s mind, in the hope that they will then be able to quit smoking,\u201d said Robert Walton, Professor at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing about a smartphone gaming app is that you can play it anywhere. Craving is a short-term thing, so if you get a craving at 11am, you can play the game in the warm until it passes, rather than going out into the cold for a cigarette. You\u2019ve also got something to do with your hands other than smoke,\u201d added Hope Caton lecturer at Kingston University.<\/p>\n
Rewards in the game are a way of giving smokers instant positive feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to quit smoking you don\u2019t get much instant feedback except desire. Your health is better but somehow it doesn\u2019t have the same effect as being told you\u2019re winning or getting a gold star,\u201d Caton explained, in the study published in the journal BMJ.<\/p>\n
IANS<\/p>\n
Picture courtesy: Alamy Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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