With a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA107444), we created an Internet smoking cessation program (ISCP) and are testing its effectiveness against a print-based treatment and its cost-effectiveness against a telephone quit line in a group-randomized controlled trial enrolling young adult smokers (18-30 years old). Supplemental funds are requested to test the feasibility of using cell phones to augment the ISCP. The widespread presence and expanding Internet capabilities of cell phones offer a new personalized prevention channel. While SMS text messaging has shown promise, the effectiveness of using the newest multimedia capabilities of cell phones has not been explored. However, there are several challenges to deploying cell phones and delivering multimedia content through them that need to be investigated before launching a full- scale trial on their effectiveness.
The aims of the supplement are to (a) develop a Prototype Cell Phone Program with tailored content from the ISCP, (b) show that young adult smokers will respond to the prototype program and evaluate how response compares to SMS Text Messages, and (c) survey young adult smokers about their use of cell phones for accessing websites, email and text messaging. Young adult daily smokers will be recruited from 75 media markets in the United States, using an On-line Health Risk Appraisal, the means by which they are being recruited for the parent project. In Year 1, the Prototype Cell Phone Program will be produced, alpha and beta tested in house, and tested for usability with 30 smokers. In Year 2, 200 smokers will be enrolled in a pilot study and randomly assigned to a single factor (Cell Phone Prototype Program v. SMS Text Messages) pretest-posttest design. The primary outcome will be response either by interacting with the Cell Phone Prototype Program using the handset or by responding by text messaging to questions posed in the SMS Text Message also using the handset. Secondary outcomes are extent of using the ISCP, requesting on-demand advice, setting a quit date, and selecting quit strategies. Also in Year 2, 400 smokers will complete a survey on use of cell phones managed by on-line survey software on our Web server. Potential moderators of cell phone use will be explored in both the pilot study and survey i.e., variables related to cell phone use in previous surveys or that predict early adoption of innovations according to the diffusion of innovations model. The results will show how content delivered by cell phones can augment the ISCP to achieve smoking cessation and be used to formulate a future randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of this augmentation. The application has been further revised by (a) adding an on-demand real- time advice system from which smokers can request content not just respond when prompted, (b) clarifying the measures of response, (c) explaining our interest in confidence intervals rather than statistical significance testing, (d) describing the basis for our selection of potential moderating variables, and (e) specifying how the results of the survey will inform decisions about the feasibility of deploying cell phone technology.
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. This study will test how cell phones can be used to effectively expand an Internet quit smoking program designed to reduce the upward trend of smoking among young adults. This project will (a) develop a model cell phone program using personalized content from our quit smoking program Web site; (b) show that young adult smokers will respond to the model cell phone program and compare how users' responses differ when users receive text messages on the cell phone; and (c) survey young adult smokers about their use of cell phones for visiting the Internet and text messaging. ? ? ?
| Buller, David B; Halperin, Abigail; Severson, Herbert H et al. (2014) Effect of nicotine replacement therapy on quitting by young adults in a trial comparing cessation services. J Public Health Manag Pract 20:E7-E15 |
| Buller, David B; Borland, Ron; Bettinghaus, Erwin P et al. (2014) Randomized trial of a smartphone mobile application compared to text messaging to support smoking cessation. Telemed J E Health 20:206-14 |
| Buller, David B; Meenan, Richard; Severson, Herb et al. (2012) Comparison of 4 recruiting strategies in a smoking cessation trial. Am J Health Behav 36:577-88 |
