Text-based smoking cessation program produces positive outcomes

BOSTON—Although still in the early phases of implementation, text message-based health interventions are producing results, according to the panelists of a Sept. 15 presentation at the 2012 Medicine 2.0 Congress.

Text2Quit is a text-based smoking cessation program developed by researchers from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., currently in use by more than 10,000 individuals and offered by 650 corporate clients. Users sign up for the program online, provide information about themselves and set a quit date.

They begin receiving texts several weeks before the quit date they provided during signup and texts increase in frequency leading up to their quit date, starting at about three per week and culminating in five per day before declining in frequency following the quit date.  

“Tomorrow’s the big day,” reads one of the automated messages, which are tailored to information provided by Text2Quit users. “Throw out all of your cigs and keep busy.”

The Text2Quit system is bidirectional, meaning users can connect with Text2Quit even if they’re not scheduled to receive a message. Texting the words “crave,” “reasons,” “smoked,” “date” or “stats” to the system will elicit a response that might tell them how much money they’ve saved on cigarettes so far or remind them why they’re quitting.

Compared with a control group, Text 2Quit users have performed about 50 percent better one month after their quit date in an ongoing randomized control trial, according to Lorien Abroms, ScD, Text2Quit’s lead developer and an assistant professor at the George Washington School of Public Health and Health Services in Washington, D.C.

Users value the program for its constancy, interactive tools and mostly for its support, Abroms said. The “messages have been like a constantly concerned friend,” replied one user during a follow-up survey. “It’s a great support system.”