Chinese Trial: Text Messages Help Smokers Quit

A recent study carried out by Chinese researchers, found that distracting and nagging text messages, helped smokers remain abstinent from cigarettes.

Diane Caruana

December 28, 2018

A study funded by the Chinese Medical Board titled, Effectiveness of a text-messaging-based smoking cessation intervention (“Happy Quit”) for smoking cessation in China: A randomized controlled trial, was recently published in PLOS Medicine.

The participants who received the most texts, were the most successful at quitting.

The clinical trial, involved smokers who agreed to join a cessation programme and were divided into three groups. The first group received a high volume (five a day) of cognitive behavioural therapy-based personalised SMS messages, the second group a lower volume of the same messages at three a week, while the control group received none.

The compiled data indicated that the participants who received the most texts, were the most successful at quitting. “We found that biochemically verified continuous smoking abstinence at 24 weeks was 6.5 per cent in the high-frequency messaging group, 6.0 per cent in the low-frequency messaging group, and 1.9 per cent in the control group,” reported the study authors.

Happy Quit

The researchers called this method “Happy Quit” and they predict that Chinese authorities will find it attractive as it is cheaper than distributing pharmaceutical aids, such as nicotine patches or gum, or varenicline-containing drugs.

Read Further: The Register