Text messaging as an addition to an internet based smoking cessation intervention: a randomized controlled trial

Purpose: The main aim of the study was to compare the effect of identical tailored messages by SMS and e-mail on adherence and smoking cessation rates in an intention to treat analyses

Context: In 2010, 30% Norwegian men and 28% of women were smokers (daily and occasionally). The website www.slutta.no was open to the Norwegian public. It was free, and a part of the national smoking cessation strategy of the Directorate of Health. As many as 94% of the population in Norway have access to Internet in their homes and 96% owns a mobile phone.

Methods: We conducted a two arm Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), from May 2010 until October 2012, among users of www.slutta.no, a multi component Norwegian internet based smoking cessation program. We analyzed self-reported no smoking past 7 days at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post cessation in the arm that received SMS  compared with the arm that received e-mails.

Results and discussion: After randomization, baseline data were available for 2,188 and 2,147 participants in the intervention and E-mail arm, respectively. Compared with the E-mail arm, the proportion that had logged in more than once and that had logged on additional times post cessation was higher in the SMS arm, both P-values <.0001.

At 1 month post cessation 19.1% in the SMS arm reported no smoking past 7 days, compared with 19.0% in the E-mail arm. The corresponding figures were at 3 months 14.6% for both  arms, at 6 months 11.5% and 11.0%; and at 12 months 12.2% and 13.6% (intervention:115/941; E-mail :126/927). The results from this RCT show that the smoking cessation rates are similar when the tailored smoking cessation advice is delivered by SMS and by e-mail.