Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Sep 8, 2022
Date Accepted: Sep 20, 2022
A Text-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention for Sexual and Gender Minority Groups (SmokefreeSGM): Protocol for a Feasibility Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Smoking among sexual and gender minority (SGM) groups, which include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals, has been reported to be highly prevalent. This is attributed to several factors, including minority-specific stress and targeted tobacco marketing. Therefore, this population is at an increased risk for tobacco-related diseases. Text messaging programs have been found to be effective for smoking cessation and appeal to traditionally hard-to-reach populations over other interventions. It has also been suggested that targeted and tailored interventions could be more effective among SGM smokers because they can be designed to assure a safe, validating health care environment that enhances receptivity to cessation.
Objective:
The objective of this study is to develop SmokefreeSGM, a text-based smoking cessation program tailored to and tested among SGM smokers.
Methods:
The study consists of three phases. In Phase 1, our research team will collaborate with a Community Advisory Board (CAB) to develop and pretest the design of SmokefreeSGM. In Phase 2, the tailored text messaging program will be beta tested among 16 SGM smokers. Our research team will utilize a mixed-methods approach to collect and analyze data from participants that will inform the refinement of SmokefreeSGM. In Phase 3, a randomized control trial will be conducted among 80 SGM smokers either enrolled in SmokefreeSGM or SmokefreeTXT, the original text-based program developed by the NCI for the general population. Our research team will examine recruitment, retention, and smoking abstinence rates at 1, 3, and 6 months follow-up. Additionally, a qualitative interview will be conducted among 32 participants to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the programs (SmokefreeSGM and SmokefreeTXT).
Results:
This study received approval from the UTHealth Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) to begin research on August 21, 2020. Recruitment for the beta testing of SmokefreeSGM (Phase 2) began in January 2022. We estimate that the randomized control trial (Phase 3) will begin in September 2022 and that results will be available in December 2023.
Conclusions:
Findings from this research effort will help reduce tobacco-related health disparities among SGM smokers by determining the feasibility and acceptability of SmokefreeSGM, an SGM-tailored smoking cessation intervention. Clinical Trial: U.S. National Library of Medicine ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05029362; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05029362
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