Effectiveness of Personalized Virtual Reality with Game Components Behavioral Intervention on Smoking Cessation

Abstract

Smoking is gradually becoming a concern for most people due to its harm to the lungs, heart, and immune system. Psychological approaches such as cognitive behavior therapy, cue exposed therapy, behavioral change techniques, and motivational interview, are mainstream to treat smoking addiction. However, relapse after quitting smoking is still a significant issue for conventional treatment. Virtual reality (VR) technology is gradually becoming a tool to facilitate behavior therapy toward smoking cessation, but it does not significantly increase the treatment's effectiveness. This paper analyses the potential effectiveness of VR-gamification in quitting smoking, and a literature review is used to analyze this topic. In this paper, the author proves that adding game elements to the treatment could promote the user's self-efficacy and motivation to quit smoking. With the flow features applied in the game, the user could have a sense of their ability compared to game difficulty. This would make the user feel that they are having fun and that they are engaged and challenged. It would therefore inhibit the user's dropout rate. Additionally, gamification should include personalization, social support, a meaningful frame, a user-centered design, and emotion and enjoyment to facilitate further intrinsic motivation to quit.