Conclusions
Robin Anger
Our study adds to the existing evidence that eHealth SC interventions using BCTs, interactivity, and tailoring can be effective tools for increasing the quit rates of individuals who smoke, but superiority compared with a less intensive intervention could not be proven in the long term. Insufficient implementation of the techniques used in TK-SCC (interactivity, tailoring, or the used BCTs) as well as cotreatment bias could explain this outcome. Further analysis of the implementation of the techniques used in TK-SCC, possibly succeeded by program revision, seems promising. However, a more intense use of TK-SCC was positively related to a higher number of successful quitting attempts. Therefore, our results support the theory that additional efforts to keep the users of eHealth SC programs engaged might contribute to improving the effectiveness of these interventions. A suggested strategy could be the implementation of gamification [The authors would like to acknowledge Robin Anger for his support at the beginning of this project, as well as Clara Franck for her support in the literature research for this paper. Furthermore, the authors would like to thank Rainer Bredenkamp, Irina Kopman, Kerstin Hofreuter-Gätgens, Nicole Knaack, and Dagmar Köppel for their engagement during the entire study.The trial presented in this paper was independently conceptualized and conducted by the Section of Health Care Research and Rehabilitation Research (SEVERA), Medical Center Freiburg, and the Institute of Sport and Sport Science (IfSS), both affiliated to the University of Freiburg. The Techniker Krankenkasse Smoking Cessation Coaching [Authors' Contributions: EF-G, IT, MB, PL, GM, and CS contributed to the conceptualization and design of the analysis. EF-G contributed to supervision. IT and PM contributed to project administration. MS, IT, PM, and CS contributed to data collection. MS contributed data or analysis tools. PM performed the analysis. PM wrote the original draft. All the authors reviewed and edited the manuscript.Conflicts of Interest: PL received funding for content production and further development of Techniker Krankenkasse Smoking Cessation Coaching from Techniker Krankenkasse. All other authors declare no other conflicts of interest.CONSORT EHEALTH checklist (V 1.6.1).