Pandemic effects on personal routines encourage positive behavior changes, the backbone of Ismokay, an app that supports smokers to abandon nicotine

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, December 15, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The “New Normal” or “New Reality” has revealed itself as a pathway, through which people learned to experience new attitudes, essential to achieve changes in their day-to-day lives. Whether big or small, the fact is that people have actually made changes in their routines, concerning their safety, health, consumption and even personal relations.

Some of the new habits may be abandoned after the long-awaited end of the pandemic; however, most of them tend to remain, and become part of reality, as effective behavior changes, which will lay the foundation of people’s lives from now on – especially when it comes to health.
The so-called behavior changes are the guideline concept behind the Ismokay app, launched to help smokers quit nicotine addiction. The methodology encourages replacing those periods smokers used to fetch a cigarette by actions that provide them with better life quality, health and wellness. “People are taking better care of each other, worried about hygiene, concerned with more balanced nutrition habits, to strengthen their immune system. Along with it, they have been trying to maintain physical activities, even confined in domestic environments, rethink their routines as a whole, and this is fully connected to the Ismokay proposal”, says Marcelo Souza, the startup co-founder and CEO.


Behavior changes: replacing habits

Studies published in 2016 by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, at the University of Oxford (UK), confirmed that tobacco addiction is not exclusively chemical but also behavioral.

The authors conclude that "interventions that combine pharmacotherapy and behavioral support increase smoking cessation success, compared to a minimal intervention or usual care". Based on the 52 studies analyzed, "there are high-quality evidences that using a combination of behavioral support and medication increases the chances of successfully quitting after at least six months".

It is also based on evidences that the Ismokay app aims at leading the user into this process of taking up new healthy routines, and providing the smoker with clear information to show them how behavior changes may ensure continuous gains. Along this process, users are encouraged to move on to the next stages proposed by the app, until they feel fully confident to quit smoking.

To achieve this, the app works with the concept of journeys. In an intuitive way, it leads users through their own path, always supported by a handy tool installed on the cell phone, which provides an individually customized experience.


First journey: conscious consuming
Meant for those who take pleasure from smoking, though fully aware that some reduction is needed, but are not yet ready, or may be willing to keep on consuming cigarettes for a while. After introductory answers are provided, such as the daily number of cigarettes consumed, and the intended cutback percentage, the app creates and proposes a consumption table.


Second journey: programmed reduction
At this intermediate stage, each week, and in a customized flow, users are conducted to improve their reduction performance, updating the tables as they progress.


Third journey: quit smoking
This journey is meant for those who have already stopped smoking recently, or have reached this stage through the app. This follow-up works perfectly to prevent relapses, providing motivational content and reinforcing behavioral changes.

“Ismokay’s main purpose is to walk side by side with smokers, throughout their pathway, whether they are still smoking, or after they have succeeded in quitting the addiction. It is an everlasting support”, says Marcelo Souza.
* http://formsus.datasus.gov.br/novoimgarq/39059/7662164_312361.pdf

Hannah Spraker
Ismokay - Quit Smoking App
press@ismokay.com
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