Efficacy of an SMS-Based Smoking Intervention Using Message Self-Authorship: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Public Health
• Digital Health

Background:

• Text-message-based interventions are increasingly feasible due to technological advances.
• These interventions show great potential for health behavior change.
• Smoking cessation remains a significant public health challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of self-authored versus expert-authored text messages for smoking cessation.
• To evaluate the impact of adding implementation intentions to self-authored messages.

Main Methods:

• A pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 62 participants (aged 25-66).
• Participants were randomized into self-authorship (SA) only, SA with implementation intentions (SA+ii), or an active control group.
• Participants created their own motivational cessation messages; the SA+ii group also developed if-then plans.

Main Results:

• Overall smoking decreased, measured by exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) reduction (p=0.04).
• The SA+ii group demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in CO compared to the control group (p=0.04).
• Self-authored messages alone (SA) did not show greater efficacy than the control group.

Conclusions:

• Self-authored messages do not appear to increase smoking cessation efficacy on their own.
• Text-based interventions, including those with self-authored content, can support smoking cessation.
• Further research is needed to optimize text-message intervention efficacy for smoking cessation.