A Mobile Device Based Intervention to Reduce the Influence of Smoking Cues Among African American Cigarette Smokers

: African American cigarette smokers have higher rates of lung cancer and lower rates of smoking cessation compared to Whites. African American smokers also live in communities that have a disproportionately high number of tobacco cues and advertisements. Exposure to smoking cues may promote smoking and undermine cessation attempts. While it is difficult to modify the number of smoking cues in the environment, it may be possible to reduce attention to those cues (attentional bias). This procedure is termed Attentional Retraining (AR), which trains smokers to attend away from smoking cues. AR may reduce exposure to smoking cues, and therefore reduce craving and smoking. The current study examined the efficacy of AR administered on a mobile-device in reducing attentional bias, craving, and smoking.