Text Messaging for Supporting Quit Attempts

This study is a preliminary research aimed to compare the feasibility and effectiveness of motivational interview (MI), Personalized text messages (TM) and usual care for outpatients, with focus on smoking cessation as the main outcome. Smokers patients have received brief interventions and nicotine replacement therapy during the hospitalization. After discharge smokers were allocated into a intervention or control arm. In the first and third months, after randomization, the patients were contact to smoke abstinence assessment.

Background: Research suggests that smokers who receive treatment inside the hospital and post-discharge follow up for at least a month are more likely to quit smoking than those who didn't receive any intervention. The current challenge is to know the best way to support post-discharge quit attempts in the Brazilian context. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the feasibility and effectiveness of motivational interview (MI) plus Personalized text messages (TM) and usual care for support smoking cessation among post-discharge patients. Methods: All patients admitted to the University Hospital of Juiz de Fora (HU/UFJF), between 06/2015 to 01/2016, were asked about the cigarettes consumption in the last 30 days. Smokers patients received brief interventions and nicotine replacement therapy during the hospitalization. After hospitalization discharge smokers were allocated into a intervention or control arm. The intervention group received a singular MI session by phone and mobile phone TM twice a day during eight or fifteen days. The control group received only usual care available inside the hospital. Results: At the first and third months, after randomization, the patients were contacted for smoke abstinence assessment.