A RECENT study revealed the effectiveness of a tailored, interactive text message program designed to help adolescents quit vaping. In a randomised clinical trial involving 1,503 teen e-cigarette users, researchers found that 37.8% of participants who received the text-based intervention reported quitting vaping after seven months, compared to just 28% in the control group. The study, conducted between October 2021 and October 2023, recruited participants through social media and provided the intervention group with automated texts offering cognitive and behavioural coping strategies, as well as social support.
The trial’s results attest to the potential of digital health interventions in promoting healthier behaviours among teens, particularly in addressing the widespread issue of e-cigarette use. The study noted that no baseline characteristics, such as nicotine dependence, moderated the positive effects of the program, making it broadly effective across diverse adolescent groups.
The findings are particularly significant given the lack of empirically tested vaping cessation tools for this age group, despite the known harms of nicotine exposure during adolescence. The study also reported no evidence that participants who quit vaping switched to traditional tobacco products, reinforcing the intervention’s potential as a safe and effective tool for reducing e-cigarette use among teens.
These results suggest that leveraging technology through interactive, supportive text messaging could be a valuable approach to tackling the growing public health challenge of teen vaping.
Aleksandra Zurowska, EMJ
Reference
Graham A L et al. A Vaping Cessation Text Message Program for Adolescent E-Cigarette Users: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2024. [Epub ahead of print].
