Text messaging for smoking cessation – a digital approach

Long-term quit rates via existing behavioural and pharmacological approaches remain low. New, cost-effective, and evidence-based treatments with better reach and higher uptake are needed.

Compared to traditional telephone support, text messaging is a low-cost option with potential for high reach and effectiveness that offers increased convenience, privacy, confidentiality and reduced stigma for users. Text message quit support programs can be easily shared, adapted, and upscaled.

The event is presented by the Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame; a member of the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI).

A/Prof Ryan Courtney is a current National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and previous National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC). He is program lead of NDARC’s Tobacco Research Group. His published work includes research on smoking cessation, in particular tobacco smoking in low socio-economic status (SES) and disadvantaged populations. His research has a strong focus on the relationships between social disparities, including socio-economic inequalities and health behaviours and outcomes. He is currently leading several large-scale NHMRC-funded smoking cessation trials including a non-inferiority trial of text messaging vs telephone Quitline support for Australians from low-SES backgrounds who smoke.