# Proud to Quit (P2Q): A Person-centered mobile technology intervention for smoking cessation among transgender adults

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2024 · $234,262

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Transgender adults in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by tobacco use. Transgender adults are more
than twice as likely to smoke cigarettes than the general U.S. adult population. In addition to the great burden
of disease tobacco use places onto this population, tobacco use is also a contraindication for gender-affirming
care, a medical necessity for many transgender persons to achieve full mental and physical health. Despite the
health-related needs of transgender adults, existing smoking cessation interventions fail to address the specific
needs of this population. As such, the National Academy of Medicine and U.S. Surgeon General identifies
transgender-specific health needs and developing and testing the effectiveness of interventions for
transgender adults a national priority. Despite the role health care providers can play in cessation, transgender
adults report barriers to accessing evidence-based, clinician-delivered interventions. A transgender-specific
mHealth intervention could serve as a cost-effective and scalable solutions to improving health outcomes for
this often hard-to-reach population. Furthermore, such an intervention can be a health services resource for
health care providers who might not have the time or expertise to provide gender affirming smoking cessation
support to their transgender patients. Building on our team's research expertise in transgender health,
mHealth, tobacco cessation, and health systems tobacco-related care, we propose to develop and pilot test an
mHealth smoking cessation intervention for transgender adults: Proud to Quit (P2Q). P2Q will provide tailored
messages, peer social support, and self-monitoring features. We will develop P2Q by collaborating with an
Intervention Advisory Workgroup comprising of transgender adults and providers of gender affirming health
care, and implement iterative intervention design processes and usability testing. Through a remote pilot
randomized controlled trial, we will assess acceptability and feasibility of an mHealth smoking-cessation
intervention for transgender adults as well as its preliminary efficacy using self-report and objective biomarker
data. The findings from this proposal will inform the feasibility of and protocols for a full-scale services research
effectiveness trial. The project would redress the dearth of smoking-cessation interventions tailored to
transgender adults by offering a new tool and the ability to reach transgender adults in diverse locations; it
would offer a cost-effective approach that ensures the intervention can be broadly disseminated with fidelity;
and, ultimately, it would reduce tobacco-related health disparities among transgender adults, who are
disproportionately affected by tobacco use.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10933397
- **Project number:** 5R34DA058191-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Christina Jiayi Sun
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $234,262
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-30 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10933397

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10933397, Proud to Quit (P2Q): A Person-centered mobile technology intervention for smoking cessation among transgender adults (5R34DA058191-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10933397. Licensed CC0.

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