I Live Inspired Individually Tailored and Integrated Social Support Network for Tobacco Cessation

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Smoking kills Americans annually exacerbates myriad diseases and costs billions in healthcare and productivity losses Numerous barriers exist to accessing traditional treatment e g costs traveling to and scheduling appointments other logistics Text messaging is an extremely popular communication method Over of all Americans use text messaging giving it unparalleled reach across the population Smoking cessation interventions delivered through text messaging have shown promise as an effective way to reach and treat the broad population of smokers while eliminating the many barriers associated with traditional treatment approaches However most existing commercially available programs have not been empirically tested were not developed with end user participation are not evidence based and or do not address cognitive and behavioral variables that have been shown to enhance smoking cessation in clinical trials This direct to phase II PAR application builds on our pilot work in which Live InspiredLLC and our research partners developed T Q formerly andquot Text Quitandquot a smoking cessation intervention delivered through text messaging T Q is a unique program with a number of features that provide superior support and service compared to existing text message quit smoking products see section T Q is accessible through text messaging provides medication support for quitting smoking an integrated social support network and live counseling In this phase II project we will add functionality to accommodate use of multiple forms of nicotine replacement therapy NRT to our existing NRT medication support system following FDA guidelines We will then conduct a rigorous test of the efficacy of T Q among adult smokers and examine smoking outcomes compared to controls at and months follow up We will examine changes in smoking related attitudes and behaviors among T Q users to identify strengths and any potential weaknesses that may affect T Qandapos s impact on smoking outcomes We will examine the quality of social interactions within the T Q integrated social support network and their role in promoting smoking abstinence We will also conduct interviews with study participants in the T Q arm to enhance our understanding of the userandapos s experience with T Q Results of this trial will demonstrate the efficacy of T Q providing important credibility needed for successful commercialization This research will also provide important data for possible enhancements to improve consumer appeal prior to commercialization This proposal finalizes development and testing of a unique highly scalable intervention that can reach a U S market comprised of over million adult smokers who use text messaging and provide them with effective evidence based treatment Text messaging enjoys near market saturation and is a widely preferred method of communication with deep penetration across diverse groups Wide availability of an attractive and effective smoking cessation program such as T Q may exert a powerful sustained impact on public health PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE This proposal provides a rigorous test of andquot Text Quitandquot T Q a unique highly scalable smoking cessation intervention that provides effective evidence based treatment to smokers who use text messaging Given the near market saturation of text messaging as a widely preferred method of communication with deep penetration across diverse population groups wide availability of an attractive effective smoking cessation program could reach over million smokers and exert a powerful sustained impact on public health