Text Message Support Double Quit Rate For Smokers

It seems that there has been a new trial going on in the form of txt2stop, which is an initiative led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It’s a support programme that sends motivational and supportive text messages to smokers trying to quit, and apparently it’s been quite effective, with quit rates being doubled at six months.

It started off with a total of 5,800 smokers who were randomly allocated to the txt2stop programme or to a control group. The group then received five text messages a day for the first five weeks and then three per week for the next 26 weeks.

Whenever the smoker would find themselves needing a cigarette, all they would have to do is text the word ‘crave’ or ‘Lapse’, and receive an instant message, saying things like “This is it! – QUIT DAY, throw away all your fags. TODAY is the start of being QUIT forever, you can do it!” or “Cravings last less than 5 minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over”.

Text messages can be used to pay for goods, or subscribe to services, so it’s actually pretty interesting to see text messages being used this way.