WASHINGTON, June 9:
Text messages can give smokers the constant reminders they need to stay focused on quitting and double their chances of kicking the butt, a new study has found.
More than 11 per cent of smokers who used a text- messaging programme to help them quit did so and remained smoke free at the end of a six-month study as compared to just 5 per cent of controls, according to researchers at Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University (Milken Institute SPH).
“Text messages seem to give smokers the constant reminders they need to stay focused on quitting,” said Lorien C Abroms, an associate professor of prevention and community health at Milken Institute SPH and lead author of the study.
“However, additional studies must be done to confirm this result and to look at how these programmes work when coupled with other established anti-smoking therapies,” Abroms said.
Smokers trying to quit can turn to the tried-and-true methods like phone counselling through a quit line and nicotine replacement therapies, but increasingly the evidence is building for using text messaging on mobile phones. (PTI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel