David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Motivational text messages help smokers quit
CBC News
Jun 29, 2011
Sending motivational text messages to smokers who want to quit may help them succeed, British researchers have found.
The study randomly assigned 5,800 smokers who were willing to quit to either the motivational text messaging group or to receive only non-motivational messages, such as requesting confirmation of contact details.
Motivational texts included encouragement up to the actual quit day, advice on keeping weight off while quitting, and help dealing with cravings. For example, a craving text read: "Cravings last less than five minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over."
The researchers didn't simply rely on the participants to say they had butted out, but confirmed it by testing their saliva for levels of cotinine, a chemical found in tobacco, after they said they'd stopped smoking for six months. After six months, abstinence was 10.7 per cent in the motivational text group compared with 4.9 per cent in the control group, Caroline Free, of the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her co-authors reported in Thursday's issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
"On the basis of these results the txt2stop intervention should be considered as an addition to existing smoking cessation services," the study's authors concluded. "In this trial the intervention was effective on its own and when used alongside other smoking cessation interventions. To scale up the txt2stop intervention for delivery at a national or international level would be technically easy."
Participants in the motivational group could receive instant messages at times of need by texting the word "crave" or "lapse."
"Text messages are a very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit," said Free. "People described txt2stop as being like having a 'friend' encouraging them or an 'angel on their shoulder'. It helped people resist the temptation to smoke."
Unfortunately, the abstinence rate in the motivational text group was "low," Dr. Derrick Bennett and Dr. Jonathan Emberson of the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, UK, said in a journal commentary accompanying the study. The abstinence rate resembled that of other quit smoking strategies, Bennett and Emberson said.
The findings may be particularly useful for smoking cessation in not only high-income and middle-income countries but also for low-income countries where the mobile phone sector is rapidly growing, they said.
The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Primary Care Research Networks.
CBC News
Jun 29, 2011
Sending motivational text messages to smokers who want to quit may help them succeed, British researchers have found.
The study randomly assigned 5,800 smokers who were willing to quit to either the motivational text messaging group or to receive only non-motivational messages, such as requesting confirmation of contact details.
Motivational texts included encouragement up to the actual quit day, advice on keeping weight off while quitting, and help dealing with cravings. For example, a craving text read: "Cravings last less than five minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over."
The researchers didn't simply rely on the participants to say they had butted out, but confirmed it by testing their saliva for levels of cotinine, a chemical found in tobacco, after they said they'd stopped smoking for six months. After six months, abstinence was 10.7 per cent in the motivational text group compared with 4.9 per cent in the control group, Caroline Free, of the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her co-authors reported in Thursday's issue of the medical journal The Lancet.
"On the basis of these results the txt2stop intervention should be considered as an addition to existing smoking cessation services," the study's authors concluded. "In this trial the intervention was effective on its own and when used alongside other smoking cessation interventions. To scale up the txt2stop intervention for delivery at a national or international level would be technically easy."
Participants in the motivational group could receive instant messages at times of need by texting the word "crave" or "lapse."
"Text messages are a very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit," said Free. "People described txt2stop as being like having a 'friend' encouraging them or an 'angel on their shoulder'. It helped people resist the temptation to smoke."
Unfortunately, the abstinence rate in the motivational text group was "low," Dr. Derrick Bennett and Dr. Jonathan Emberson of the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, UK, said in a journal commentary accompanying the study. The abstinence rate resembled that of other quit smoking strategies, Bennett and Emberson said.
The findings may be particularly useful for smoking cessation in not only high-income and middle-income countries but also for low-income countries where the mobile phone sector is rapidly growing, they said.
The study was funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Primary Care Research Networks.
