Free smoking cessation mobile apps available in Australia: a quality review and content analysis

Objectives : This review aimed to identify free, high‐quality, smoking cessation mobile applications (apps) that adhere to Australian smoking cessation treatment guidelines. Methods : A systematic search of smoking cessation apps was conducted using Google. The technical quality of relevant apps was rated using the Mobile Application Rating Scale. The content of apps identified as high quality was assessed for adherence to smoking cessation treatment guidelines. Results : 112 relevant apps were identified. The majority were of poor technical quality and only six ‘high‐quality’ apps were identified. These apps adhered to Australian treatment guidelines in part. The efficacy of two apps had been previously evaluated. Conclusions : In lieu of more substantial research in this area, it is suggested that the high‐quality apps identified in this review may be more likely than other available apps to encourage smoking cessation. Implications for public health : Smoking cessation apps have the potential to address many barriers that prevent smoking cessation support being provided; however few high‐quality smoking cessation apps are currently available in Australia, very few have been evaluated and the app market is extremely volatile. More research to evaluate smoking cessation apps, and sustained funding for evidence‐based apps, is needed.     

City Parks: Untapped Resource for Fitness

In brief: Three tennis players had vague wrist pain when hitting the ball; all three were using the same racket model. Results of physical examination of the three patients were unremarkable, but x-rays of the tennis rackets showed a ‘fracture’ in the handle weights. Replacement of the racket with an identical new model relieved the symptoms in all the patients.     

Business Invests in Employee Fitness

In 1894, John H. Patterson of the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, introduced morning and afternoon exercise breaks for his employees. Ten years later he installed a gym on the fourth floor, and in 1911, he opened a 325-acre park for his employees. Every fall Americans watch the results of another company fitness program: the Green Bay Packers, originally an employee team sponsored by the Indian Packing Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

But it wasn't until about ten years ago that industry fitness programs really began to grow – in number and variety. They range from sessions led by interested employees to carefully controlled projects under full-time fitness directors. The facilities might be a local park or an elaborately equipped company gym. But reporters for The Physician and Sportsmedicine found that the programs had one theory in common: Increased fitness means increased production.