Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2004

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study waS to determine whether an automated e-mail messaging system that sent individually timed educational messages (ITEMs) increased the effectiveness of an INternet smoiking cessation intervention.

Design: Using two consecutive series of particiapnts, the authors compared two Web-based style smoking cessation interventions a single-poin-in-time educational intervention and an enhanced intervention that also sent ITEMs timed to participants' quit efforts. outcomes were compared in 199 participants receiving the one-time intervention and 286 receiving ITEMs.

Measurements: Demographic factors, number of cigarettes smoked, nicotine additiction, depressive symptoms, and confidence in ability to quit were measure at entry. Twenty-four-hour quit attempts and seven-day point-prevalence of abstinence (nonrespondents assumed to smoke) were measured 30 days after each subject's self-selected quit date.

Results: The one-time and ITEMs groups differed in some demographics and some relapse risk factors but not in factors associated with 30-day quit rates. ITEMs appeared to increase the rate at which individuals set quit rates (97% vs. 91%, p = 0.005) and, among the respondents to follow-up quezstionnaires (n = 145), the rate of reported 24-hour quit efforts (83% vs. 54%, p = 0.001). The 30day intent-to-treat quit rates were higher in the ITEMs group: 7.5% vs. 13.6%, p - 0.035. In mulitvariate analyses controlling for differences between groups, receiving ITEMs was associated with an increase in the odds ratio for quitting of 2.6 (95% confidence interval = 1.3-5.3).

Conclusion: ITEMs sent on strategic days in smokers' quit efforts enhanced early success with smoking cessation relative to a single-point-in-time Web intervention. The effect appears to be mediated by ITEMs' causing smokers to plan and undertake quit efforts more frequently.

Comments

Article published in Journal of the American Medical Infromatics Association, 4, pp 235-240 (2004).

© 2004 by the American Medical Informatics Association.

DOI: 10.1197/jamia.M1464

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