Mobile Chat Messaging for Smoking Relapse Prevention

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Smoking Cessation

Treatments: Behavioral: SMS text messaging; Behavioral: Standard smoking cessation treatment; Behavioral: Personalised chat messaging

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05370352

19201341

Details and patient eligibility

About

Most smokers return to smoking (relapse) after making a quit attempt, but evidence of effective intervention to prevent relapse is scarce. Taking advantage of recent advances in mobile technologies, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a mobile chat messaging-based relapse prevention intervention in promoting successful quitting in people who recently quit smoking (recent abstainers) using a randomised controlled trial design.

Full description

Most smokers who made quit attempts and achieved short-term abstinence return to smoking (relapse) over time, even when aided by effective smoking cessation treatment. Since relapse mostly occurred in the first 4 weeks of abstinence, relapse prevention in the early phase of abstinence could potentially boost long-term abstinence. Several behavioural interventions for smoking relapse prevention have been proposed and tested in RCTs. Yet, a 2019 Cochrane review did not find traditional approaches, including self-help materials, telephone counselling and group therapy, effective in increasing long-term abstinence at 6 months or longer.

The widespread use of mobile devices has provided a highly accessible and scalable means for novel behavioural interventions for smoking cessation. A formative qualitative study in current smokers conducted by the investigators showed that mobile chat messaging is a feasible and acceptable platform for delivering smoking cessation support. A subsequent cluster randomised controlled trial on 1148 smokers found that mobile chat messaging combined with brief intervention was effective in increasing biochemically validated abstinence at 6 months. Nonetheless, whether mobile chat messaging could prevent relapse in recent abstainers has remained untested.

The investigators did a pilot trial to confirm the feasibility and acceptability of mobile chat messaging for relapse prevention in recent abstainers. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile chat messaging relapse prevention intervention in promoting abstinence in recent abstainers.

Enrollment: 590 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Hong Kong residents aged 18 years or above
• Own a smartphone with WhatsApp installed
• Enrolled in a smoking cessation program under Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Integrated Centre on Smoking Cessation
• Smoked daily before the present quit attempt
• Abstained from smoking for 3 to 30 days

Exclusion criteria

• Diagnosed with a mental disease or on regular psychotropic drugs
• Participating in other ongoing smoking cessation studies

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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590 participants in 2 patient groups

Mobile chat messaging

Experimental group

Description:

Standard smoking cessation treatment + Personalised chat messaging

Treatment:

Behavioral: Personalised chat messaging

Behavioral: Standard smoking cessation treatment

SMS messaging

Active Comparator group

Description:

Standard smoking cessation treatment + Regular SMS text messaging generic information about the harms of smoking and the benefits of quitting

Treatment:

Behavioral: Standard smoking cessation treatment

Behavioral: SMS text messaging