Impact of the EILA application on smoking cessation among hospital workers: a randomised controlled trial.

Abstract

Smoking remains a major preventable cause of lung and cardiovascular disease. This randomised controlled trial evaluated EILA, a mobile application using artificial intelligence, for promoting smoking cessation among hospital workers. A randomised controlled trial was conducted. Hospital workers (n=43) were recruited from a German university hospital from May 2022 to March 2023. Inclusion criteria comprised age ≥18, Fagerström score ≥3 or 10 cigarettes per day, ownership of a suitable smartphone, motivation to quit smoking and no addiction to other psychoactive substances. Participants were randomised by sealed envelopes to EILA intervention (n=25) or a wait-list control (n=18) receiving a primary care-style intervention, with crossover after 3 months. The primary outcome was the cessation rate. Secondary outcomes comprised nicotine dependence, mental health and cardiovascular risk, all measured using validated questionnaires. At the 6-month follow-up, the relative risk for continued smoking was reduced to 0.91 (n=51, 95% CI 0.7 to 1.2), and nicotine dependence, measured by the Fagerström Test, decreased significantly from 4.41±1.93 to 3.32±2.69 (n=19, p=0.014). PROCAM score for cardiovascular risk was reduced from 35.22±12.47 to 31.9±13.24 (n=36, p=0.008). The digital health application EILA was linked to increased smoking cessation rates, although without achieving statistical significance. Nevertheless, the results indicate reductions in nicotine dependence and cardiovascular risk, supporting EILA as a scalable and flexible intervention for promoting health in hospital workers.