Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study

BackgroundSMS text messages are affordable, scalable, and effective smoking cessation interventions. However, there is little research on SMS text message interventions specifically designed to support people who smoke to quit by switching to vaping. ObjectiveOver...

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Main Authors: Vassilis Sideropoulos, Eleni Vangeli, Felix Naughton, Sharon Cox, Daniel Frings, Caitlin Notley, Jamie Brown, Catherine Kimber, Lynne Dawkins
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: JMIR Publications 2023-09-01
Series:JMIR Formative Research
Online Access:https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e49668
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author Vassilis Sideropoulos
Eleni Vangeli
Felix Naughton
Sharon Cox
Daniel Frings
Caitlin Notley
Jamie Brown
Catherine Kimber
Lynne Dawkins
author_facet Vassilis Sideropoulos
Eleni Vangeli
Felix Naughton
Sharon Cox
Daniel Frings
Caitlin Notley
Jamie Brown
Catherine Kimber
Lynne Dawkins
author_sort Vassilis Sideropoulos
collection DOAJ
description BackgroundSMS text messages are affordable, scalable, and effective smoking cessation interventions. However, there is little research on SMS text message interventions specifically designed to support people who smoke to quit by switching to vaping. ObjectiveOver 3 phases, with vapers and smokers, we codeveloped and coproduced a mobile phone SMS text message program. The coproduction paradigm allowed us to collaborate with researchers and the community to develop a more relevant, acceptable, and equitable SMS text message program. MethodsIn phase 1, we engaged people who vape via Twitter and received 167 responses to our request to write SMS text messages for people who wish to quit smoking by switching to vaping. We screened, adjusted, refined, and themed the messages, resulting in a set of 95 that were mapped against the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation–Behavior constructs. In phase 2, we evaluated the 95 messages from phase 1 via a web survey where participants (66/202, 32.7% woman) rated up to 20 messages on 7-point Likert scales on 9 constructs: being understandable, clear, believable, helpful, interesting, inoffensive, positive, and enthusiastic and how happy they would be to receive the messages. In phase 3, we implemented the final set of SMS text messages as part of a larger randomized optimization trial, in which 603 participants (mean age 38.33, SD 12.88 years; n=369, 61.2% woman) received SMS text message support and then rated their usefulness and frequency and provided free-text comments at the 12-week follow-up. ResultsFor phase 2, means and SDs were calculated for each message across the 9 constructs. Those with means below the neutral anchor of 4 or with unfavorable comments were discussed with vapers and further refined or removed. This resulted in a final set of 78 that were mapped against early, mid-, or late stages of quitting to create an order for the messages. For phase 3, a total of 38.5% (232/603) of the participants provided ratings at the 12-week follow-up. In total, 69.8% (162/232) reported that the SMS text messages had been useful, and a significant association between quit rates and usefulness ratings was found (χ21=9.6; P=.002). A content analysis of free-text comments revealed that the 2 most common positive themes were helpful (13/47, 28%) and encouraging (6/47, 13%) and the 2 most common negative themes were too frequent (9/47, 19%) and annoying (4/47, 9%). ConclusionsIn this paper, we describe the initial coproduction and codevelopment of a set of SMS text messages to help smokers stop smoking by transitioning to vaping. We encourage researchers to use, further develop, and evaluate the set of SMS text messages and adapt it to target populations and relevant contexts.
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spelling doaj.art-672becf01a3c4275bc859fdaaa43c33a2023-09-27T13:01:20ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Formative Research2561-326X2023-09-017e4966810.2196/49668Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing StudyVassilis Sideropouloshttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5767-5426Eleni Vangelihttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4016-4520Felix Naughtonhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9790-2796Sharon Coxhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8494-5105Daniel Fringshttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0183-9516Caitlin Notleyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0876-3304Jamie Brownhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2797-5428Catherine Kimberhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-9994-8640Lynne Dawkinshttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1236-009X BackgroundSMS text messages are affordable, scalable, and effective smoking cessation interventions. However, there is little research on SMS text message interventions specifically designed to support people who smoke to quit by switching to vaping. ObjectiveOver 3 phases, with vapers and smokers, we codeveloped and coproduced a mobile phone SMS text message program. The coproduction paradigm allowed us to collaborate with researchers and the community to develop a more relevant, acceptable, and equitable SMS text message program. MethodsIn phase 1, we engaged people who vape via Twitter and received 167 responses to our request to write SMS text messages for people who wish to quit smoking by switching to vaping. We screened, adjusted, refined, and themed the messages, resulting in a set of 95 that were mapped against the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation–Behavior constructs. In phase 2, we evaluated the 95 messages from phase 1 via a web survey where participants (66/202, 32.7% woman) rated up to 20 messages on 7-point Likert scales on 9 constructs: being understandable, clear, believable, helpful, interesting, inoffensive, positive, and enthusiastic and how happy they would be to receive the messages. In phase 3, we implemented the final set of SMS text messages as part of a larger randomized optimization trial, in which 603 participants (mean age 38.33, SD 12.88 years; n=369, 61.2% woman) received SMS text message support and then rated their usefulness and frequency and provided free-text comments at the 12-week follow-up. ResultsFor phase 2, means and SDs were calculated for each message across the 9 constructs. Those with means below the neutral anchor of 4 or with unfavorable comments were discussed with vapers and further refined or removed. This resulted in a final set of 78 that were mapped against early, mid-, or late stages of quitting to create an order for the messages. For phase 3, a total of 38.5% (232/603) of the participants provided ratings at the 12-week follow-up. In total, 69.8% (162/232) reported that the SMS text messages had been useful, and a significant association between quit rates and usefulness ratings was found (χ21=9.6; P=.002). A content analysis of free-text comments revealed that the 2 most common positive themes were helpful (13/47, 28%) and encouraging (6/47, 13%) and the 2 most common negative themes were too frequent (9/47, 19%) and annoying (4/47, 9%). ConclusionsIn this paper, we describe the initial coproduction and codevelopment of a set of SMS text messages to help smokers stop smoking by transitioning to vaping. We encourage researchers to use, further develop, and evaluate the set of SMS text messages and adapt it to target populations and relevant contexts.https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e49668
spellingShingle Vassilis Sideropoulos
Eleni Vangeli
Felix Naughton
Sharon Cox
Daniel Frings
Caitlin Notley
Jamie Brown
Catherine Kimber
Lynne Dawkins
Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
JMIR Formative Research
title Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
title_full Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
title_fullStr Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
title_full_unstemmed Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
title_short Mobile Phone Text Messages to Support People to Stop Smoking by Switching to Vaping: Codevelopment, Coproduction, and Initial Testing Study
title_sort mobile phone text messages to support people to stop smoking by switching to vaping codevelopment coproduction and initial testing study
url https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e49668
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