Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Jul 5, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 6, 2018 - Aug 31, 2018
Date Accepted: Nov 22, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Combining real-time ratings with qualitative interviews to develop a smoking cessation text messaging program for primary care patients
ABSTRACT
Background:
Text messaging interventions show promise as a way to help cigarette smokers to quit. Few studies have examined the effectiveness of text messaging programs targeting smokers associated with primary care or hospital settings.
Objective:
To develop a text messaging program targeting primary care smokers.
Methods:
Adult smokers in primary care were recruited from February-April 2017. We sent patients 10-11 draft text messages over two days and asked them to rate each message in real-time. Patients were interviewed daily by telephone to discuss ratings, message preferences, and prior experiences with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Content analysis of interviews was directed by a step-wise text messaging intervention development process and the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills model of medication adherence.
Results:
We sent 149 messages to 15 patients. They replied with ratings for 93% (N=139) of messages: 134 (96%) were rated as clear or useful, 5 (4%) as unclear or not useful. Patients’ preferences included the addition of graphics, electronic cigarette content, and use of first names. Regarding NRT, patients identified informational gaps around safety and effectiveness, preferred positively framed motivational messages, and needed behavioral skills to dose and dispose of NRT.
Conclusions:
Patients recommended message personalization, inclusion of electronic cigarette information, and graphics and identified barriers to NRT use to address by text message. Combining real-time ratings with telephone interviews is a feasible method for incorporating primary care patients’ preferences into a behavioral text messaging program.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.