Mobile apps that help people quit pot low on evidence-based information: study

A first-of-its-kind study looking at mobile apps designed to support people who want to stop their cannabis use finds that the quality of such tools is poor, and skimpy on evidence-based facts.

The research – published recently in JMIR mHealth and uHealth – looks at the quality and content of four apps intended to help people quit cannabis use.

University of Toronto researcher Michael Chaiton, an associate professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Institute of Medical Science and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, says there is more that needs to be done in Canada in terms of approaching cannabis use as a public health issue.

He says mobile and digital tools offer the potential for people who are concerned about their cannabis use to access help in a low-cost way, but the study shows that as of April 2023, the online cannabis cessation space was rife with substandard information. 

For Chaiton, the study was a reminder that researchers “need to start thinking about cannabis as a commonly used substance.”

The study notes that since cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, there’s been a “marked increase” in cannabis use, with 32.4 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older reporting cannabis use in 2023.

 “If more people are concerned about their use of cannabis, more services are needed to address this for people, and not necessarily through their doctor,” says Chaiton, who is also a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and director of research at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit.

The study also cited research indicating there was a jump in people aged 18 or older who said they had cannabis-related problems, from six per cent to 14 per cent, from 2004 to 2019.

In the study, researchers looked at English-language apps available for free in Canada on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, in April 2023. Four relevant apps were identified.

Researchers scored each app using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS), on categories like the app’s engagement, functionality, esthetics, information quality and subjective quality. Ultimately, the apps scored highest on functionality but lowest on information quality.

This led researchers to highlight the “significant gap between the growing demand for virtual cessation tools and the quality of existing options.”

“With the rising global prevalence of cannabis use disorders, there is an increasing need for robust, accessible, and evidence-based therapeutic options,” they note, in the study’s findings. The study also states there is a “need for caution when patients use or clinicians recommend existing cannabis cessation apps.”

Chaiton says that part of the reason poor-quality information may exist online is because of the history of cannabis being marketed as a medical aide, which has led to “lots of misinformation out there, both overstating harms as well as advocates who underplay the issues associated with it.”

“There’s a really limited availability of programs and services for people looking to address their own cannabis use. When we’re offering services for cannabis use, we still design these programs as if using cannabis is illegal, which it’s not,” says Chaiton, who was the study’s first author.

“It’s especially apparent when you contrast it with the hundreds of apps that are available for tobacco cessation. There simply aren’t the same level of services for cannabis use cessation.”

Siddharth Seth, a third-year MD student at Temerty Medicine, Sumedha Kushwaha, a PhD candidate at Temerty Medicine’s Institute of Medical Science and Dalla Lana, and Reshma Prashad, an associate professor at Ontario Tech University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, also contributed to the research.