Text messages help quitting smoking

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Text messages help quitting smoking

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Text messages are a very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit.

30 June,2011 06:49 pm

A new study found that text messages are a very convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit.People trying to quit smoking are twice as likely to give up if they receive a text message encouraging them. Smokers described text to stop smoking like having a friend encouraging them. It helps people resist the temptation to smoke. British doctors recruited 5,800 smokers and randomly assigned them either to a group that received specially-tailored SMS. Smokers in the control group received bland SMSes every fortnight whereas the other group received encouraging messaging to quit smoking. After six months, 10.7 percent in the SMS support group had been continuously sober, but this was only 4.9 percent in the control group. Thus the study concluded that encouraging texts can be very helpful for the smoker to quit.HIV-infected patients in Kenya who received text reminders about taking daily AIDS drugs were 12 percent likelier to achieve full adherence to their drug as compared to their counterpart.