The Interplay of Behavioral Science and Communications Technology in Tobacco Cessation: Dr. Amanda Graham, Chief Health Officer at Truth Initiative

Most adults who smoke want to quit, and about half try to do so in any given year, yet fewer than one in ten succeed. That persistent gap between intention and outcome is one of the central challenges in public health, and it's exactly the kind of problem that calls for new thinking about how to communicate with people to support behavior change. 

Dr. Amanda Graham has been a leading force in doing just that in her role as chief health officer at Truth Initiative, the nation's largest non-profit public health organization dedicated to preventing addiction among young people and helping people of all ages to quit tobacco. On this episode of Raise the Line from Elsevier, Dr. Graham, who holds a PhD in clinical health psychology and has done 25 years of NIH-funded research focused on technology-based cessation interventions, helps us understand the interplay between behavioral science and digital communications in the field.

"A well-timed message can really be powerful in interrupting what for many people is kind of an automatic behavior, especially via text, which data tell us is an extraordinarily powerful modality,” she explains to host Lindsey Smith. 

Tune-in to understand where the field is heading, and to learn about:

• Why "push" technology may work better than apps and websites when it comes to breaking automatic behaviors;
• How the rise of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco has scrambled decades of public health messaging;
• How highschool smoking rates plunged from over 30% to less than 2%.

Mentioned in this episode:

Truth Initiative

Program with Mayo Clinic

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