A Text Messaging Program for Smokers in Primary Care

Background: Fifteen percent of U.S. adults continue to smoke despite the availability of effective smoking cessation treatment and healthcare systems are positioned to address this deficiency. Text messaging is a widespread technology which shows promise as a way to reach smokers and to connect them with treatment. Tobacco cessation support delivered by text message increases abstinence among smokers interested in quitting in community- or school-based settings. This has led to the creation of text messaging programs by the National Cancer Institute, SmokeFreeTXT, and others. However, little is known about the feasibility of delivering smoking cessation support by text message for smokers engaged in healthcare systems. Integrating text messaging programs within healthcare systems has clear advantages. Documentation of smoking status is one of the Meaningful Use standards. This documentation enables healthcare systems to identify their population of smokers and proactively target them with health interventions outside of the busy office visit. Text messaging programs originating from the physicians' practice may also leverage the influence physicians have on smokers' motivation to quit.

Text messaging has been used in healthcare systems to effectively improve medication adherence in other conditions. Adherence to smoking cessation medications is at least modestly associated with cessation and measures of adherence to smoking cessation medications suggest overall low adherence to cessation medications outside of clinical trials. Offering free nicotine replacement therapy along with the medication adherence advice in a text messaging intervention will allow us to evaluate of the effect of adherence messages on medication use.

Study design A pilot randomized controlled trial of 206 smokers who receive care in Massachusetts General Hospital-affiliated primary care practices will compare the effect of delivering behavioral smoking cessation content with pharmacotherapy support by text message plus nicotine replacement therapy on self-reported quit attempts (intentional non-smoking for ≥24 hours), medication adherence, days not smoked, and smoking abstinence at the end of treatment. Smokers will be identified using the electronic health record, screened by their primary care provider, and proactively contacted by telephone by a clinical research coordinator. Potential subjects will be screened for eligibility by self-report and chart review by the Principal Investigator. Eligible subjects will be stratified by practice and readiness to quit (plan to quit smoking in the next 30 days vs no plan to quit smoking/plan to quit smoking in the next 6 months) and randomized 1:1:1:1 to 4 groups using a variable block randomization.

1. Brief advice (BA): Brief advice to quit smoking and usual care. Rationale: All subjects will receive brief advice from a trained clinical research coordinator. All primary care subjects also have access to guideline-concordant tobacco treatment through usual care with their primary care provider. Their primary care provider can refer them to in-person or telephone counseling and can prescribe medications.
2. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT): Brief advice + 2 weeks of nicotine patches and/or lozenges mailed to subject. Rationale: In order to test the effect of text messaging on medication adherence, we need to have treatment groups receiving medication and medication plus text messaging. To deliver medication, mailed NRT, like text messaging, reaches patients outside of the busy office visit. Mailed NRT alone has also been shown to increase cessation and may itself be an effective intervention compared to brief advice and usual care.
3. Text messaging (TM): Brief advice + 12 week personalized, tailored text messaging program. Rationale: Text messaging shows promise as an intervention to help smokers to quit. However, it has not been well tested among primary care patients. Text messaging may connect those primary care smokers who do not access currently available treatment services like telephone counseling or prescribed medication with assistance outside of the clinic office.
4. Text messaging and nicotine replacement therapy (TM+NRT): Brief advice + 12 week personalized, tailored text messaging program + 2 weeks of nicotine patches and/or lozenges mailed to subject. Rationale: As above, in order to test the effect of text messaging on medication adherence, we need to have treatment groups receiving medication and medication plus text messaging. Text messaging has been shown to increase medication adherence in other conditions and medication adherence is suboptimal among users of smoking cessation medications. Integrating text messaging within healthcare systems offers opportunities to coordinate with pharmacotherapy and this 4 group design allows us to test the effect of text messaging alone on smoking outcomes and the effect of text messaging on NRT use.