Individualized Treatment Effects of a Digital Smoking Cessation Intervention Among Individuals Looking Online for...

Smoking is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Efforts to reduce smoking prevalence have used SMS text message-based interventions, which typically send participants a series of short, informational, motivational, and practical messages over a set period. Evidence highlights the efficacy of using this approach to support smoking cessation, with such trials typically reporting the average treatment effects, in which causal inference is made regarding the average effect of a treatment on a heterogeneous sample. Nonetheless, using this approach to assessing treatment effects means we are unable to account for individual factors that impact the effectiveness of a treatment on outcomes, such as age, gender, and genetics.

This study aimed to estimate the individualized effects of an SMS text message-based smoking cessation intervention to ascertain which individuals benefited the most and least during an effectiveness trial.

Data from a randomized controlled trial including 1012 adults from the Swedish general population were used. The trial assessed the effects of an SMS text message-based intervention, NEXit (Nicotine Exit), that aimed to change behavior by increasing the importance of change, boosting knowledge on how to change, and instilling confidence for change. Outcomes assessed in the trial were prolonged abstinence and point prevalence of smoking cessation. Individualized treatment effects were modeled using baseline factors (demographics, psychosocial variables, and past behavior) to study who benefited the most and least from the intervention.

For prolonged abstinence, there was evidence of heterogeneous effects, with those benefiting the most from NEXit being older adults, female participants, individuals with high confidence in their ability to quit, and those who believed that quitting was important. For point prevalence abstinence, older individuals and those reporting high confidence in the ability to quit, the importance of quitting, and knowledge for change benefited the most. For both outcomes, individuals who reported smoking for a longer duration and smoking more at baseline benefited less.

The results demonstrate how individuals respond differently to an SMS text message-based smoking cessation intervention. This provides an insight into who benefits the most and least from the intervention in terms of demographics, baseline characteristics, and behaviors. The study highlights which individuals need to be specifically targeted and/or have content developed to suit their individual needs to further reduce the prevalence of smoking.