14 DAY TRIAL // A new investigation by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine shows that texting can be used as an effective tool for helping people kick the habit of smoking.
Its efficiency was put to the test in a group of 5,800 participants, who were randomly assigned to either a control group or the txt2stop group. Test subjects in the latter received motivational and supportive messages from researchers, whereas the others did not.
The messages were transmitted directly to their cell phones, so that the people could be encouraged to remain strong no matter where they were. Rates of smoking cessation in the study group doubled in just six months, which is a remarkable result.
In a paper published in the latest issue of the esteemed medical journal The Lancer, experts explain the study methodology and conclusions in more details. As background data, researchers suggested that about 66 percent of all smokers attempt to quit, but fail.
In order to determine whether the patients had indeed quit smoking, researchers measured level of a tobacco chemical called cotinine in the saliva of all test participants. The test was only carried out on those who reported that they had quit smoking for six months.
At first, people in the research group received 5 text messages daily, for a total period of 5 weeks. Then, they received 3 messages per week for another 26 weeks. Whenever they felt the need for encouragement, the subjects sent the words “crave” or “relapse” to researchers.
In turn, the experts sent back additional support messages. This approach appears to work, PsychCentral reports. Both smokers and smoking cessation professionals helped the experts put together the encouraging messages.
“This is it! – QUIT DAY, throw away all your fags. TODAY is the start of being QUIT forever, you can do it!” and “Cravings last less than 5 minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over,” are just two example of the type of messages people got.
“Mobile phone text messaging smoking cessation support doubles quit rates at six months,” the research team writes in The Lancet.
“Text messages are a very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit. 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,” the experts add.