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Auckland (pte023/01.06.2005/11:35) - According to a new trial carried out in New Zealand, SMS or text messaging is helping young people to quit smoking.
The first programme of its kind was led by Anthony Rodgers, director of the Clinical Trials Research Unit at the University of Auckland, New Zealand https://www.ctru.auckland.ac.nz/aboutus/director.html . Rodgers and his team studied over 850 young smokers with an average age of 25. The study was published in the magazine Tobacco Control http://tc.bmjjournals.com/ .
Before their designated quit day the smokers were sent messages five times a day that said things like: "Write down 4 people who will get a kick outta u kicking butt. Your mum, dad, m8s?" The messages then continued for another four weeks. For a further five months three messages a week were sent. As an incentive the participants were offered one month of free SMSes from the day they quit. Twenty-eight per cent of these claimed to have stopped smoking at the end.
A second group received the month-long free SMSes six months after stopping smoking but were not sent any anti-smoking texts. Only 13 per cent of this group quit.
Checking the results reported, the scientists tested for the presence of cotinine, a breakdown product of nicotine, in one in 10 of the subjects: from both groups about half had not given up, even though they said they had.
Rodgers claims that the method works because the texting acts as 'chewing gum for the fingers', and distracts smokers from smoking. He is confident that using SMSes will be used increasingly for public health interventions.
"You can deliver bite-sized training courses right to the person's pocket anywhere in the world," he said. "There's huge potential for blood pressure management, for depression, and for nutritional advice for weight control."
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