Feasibility of text messaging to augment brief advice and nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation in college students

Abstract

Objective

To test the feasibility of a university health center-delivered smoking cessation intervention that adds a 6–week course of text messaging to brief advice and nicotine patch therapy. Participants: Young adult cigarette smokers (n = 40) from 2 universities from January 2015 to May 2016. Methods: Randomized controlled trial comparing brief advice, nicotine patch therapy and: (1) a 6-week text messaging intervention (n = 20); or (2) no text messaging (n = 20). Primary outcomes included enrollment, retention and satisfaction. Results: Forty participants enrolled (38% of those screened). Retention rates were 98% and 92.5% at 6 and 12 weeks. Of those who completed the text intervention (n = 16), 64.3% felt the texts were “helpful”, however they reported desire for tailoring and concern that texts triggered smoking. Biochemically confirmed abstinence rates did not significantly differ between text and control arms. Conclusions: These feasibility data suggest that text messaging may need to be modified to better engage and motivate college-age smokers.

Keywords:

• Young Adult
• Smoking Cessation

Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the university health centers who participated in this study, Lindsey Behlman for her assistance with data collection, and the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences for data analysis support.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from Yale University School of Medicine.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by K12DA033012, CTSA grants UL1 TR000142, and KL2 TR000140 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIH roadmap for Medical Research. The funders had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.