{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T16:37:21Z","timestamp":1787071041793,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,1]],"date-time":"2024-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1719792000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["lww.com","ovid.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,7]]},"abstract":"\n Background:<\/jats:title>\n The WHO tobacco control team established the Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco (AIQT) in July 2020. The AIQT team developed a virtual assistant \u201cFlorence\u201d to provide digital counseling services to people willing to quit tobacco.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Aim:<\/jats:title>\n To assess tobacco users\u2019 experience of using WHO digital health assistant \u201cFlorence\u201d and to track their behavior changes.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Materials and Methods:<\/jats:title>\n The study was conducted at a tertiary care Teaching Hospital in Delhi-NCR, India from November 2021 to March 2022. A total of 102 English-speaking tobacco users were enrolled through snowballing and online requests to use Florence (https:\/\/www.who.int\/campaigns\/Florence), once at baseline, and pursue as often as they wish during the next three months. A predesigned WHO questionnaire (Florence Introductory Questionnaire and Florence User Follow-up Questionnaire) was used to assess participants\u2019 experiences of using Florence and track changes in tobacco use behavior at follow-up. Statistical analysis was performed through SPSS-22 using appropriate frequency distribution parameters and nonparametric tests to assess acceptance and efficacy of Florence.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results:<\/jats:title>\n \n Most participants at baseline, over 3-5 minutes, felt that Florence could not understand their speech (48%), and needed improvement in advice and information on quitting and tobacco use (52%) but felt comfortable interacting with Florence (42.2%). However, participants who re-visited Florence during the next 3 months (12\/102) agreed that Florence helped them make a quit plan and used the recommended toll-free quit (9\/12). Overall, there was a significant increase in proportion of participants who did not consume tobacco in the last 07 days after using Florence (09 versus 25 of 102,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n < 0.01) and made quit plans (07 versus 15 of 102,\n P<\/jats:italic>\n < 0.01) compared to baseline.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion:<\/jats:title>\n Considering the ease, accessibility, and amount of time spent with this virtual assistant, Florence appears a positive step forward in tobacco cessation.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.4103\/ipj.ipj_280_24","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,18]],"date-time":"2024-12-18T10:02:55Z","timestamp":1734516175000},"page":"366-372","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1097\/lww.0000000000001000","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Initial experiences of an english-speaking digital assistant for tobacco cessation in India"],"prefix":"10.4103","volume":"33","author":[{"given":"Enub","family":"Ali","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, Haryana, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nitin","family":"Antony","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, Haryana, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ankur","family":"Sachdeva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, Haryana, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Smita N.","family":"Deshpande","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, Haryana, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"276","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"R2-20260424","first-page":"CD011163","article-title":"Multiple risk factor interventions for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries","volume":"2015","author":"Uthman","year":"2015","journal-title":"Cochrane Database Syst Rev"},{"key":"R3-20260424","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1529","DOI":"10.1093\/ntr\/ntx276","article-title":"The poorest of poor suffer the greatest burden from smokeless tobacco use: A study from 140 countries","volume":"20","author":"Sinha","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nicotine Tob Res"},{"key":"R4-20260424","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1402.","DOI":"10.3332\/ecancer.2022.1402","article-title":"A public policy analysis with key stakeholders\u2019 insights to understand India\u2019s compliance with the WHO framework convention on tobacco control","volume":"16","author":"Ghose","year":"2022","journal-title":"Ecancermedicalscience"},{"key":"R5-20260424","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"69.","DOI":"10.4103\/0019-509X.63873","article-title":"Tobacco cessation services in India: Recent developments and the need for expansion","volume":"47","author":"Murthy","year":"2010","journal-title":"Indian J Cancer"},{"key":"R7-20260424","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S80","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijtb.2021.08.027","article-title":"Tobacco cessation in India-Current status, challenges, barriers and solutions","volume":"68S","author":"Gupta","year":"2021","journal-title":"Indian J Tuberc"},{"key":"R14-20260424","first-page":"7","article-title":"Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT): Toward a public health approach to the management of substance abuse","volume":"28","author":"Babor","year":"2007","journal-title":"SubstAbus"},{"key":"R15-20260424","first-page":"2055207619880676","article-title":"Does the addition of a supportive chatbot promote user engagement with a smoking cessation app? 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