An Experimental Feasibility Study of a Hybrid Telephone Counseling/Text Messaging Intervention for Post-Discharge Cessation Support Among Hospitalized Smokers in Brazil

Objective Text messaging interventions are effective. Despite high utilization of smartphones, few studies evaluate text messaging for cessation in middle-/lower-income countries. Initiating tobacco treatment in hospitals is an effective but underutilized approach for reaching smokers. We evaluated a hybrid phone counseling/text messaging intervention for supporting cessation among hospitalized smokers in Brazil. Methods We used an experimental design to assess the feasibility and potential effect size of the intervention. Participants (N = 66) were recruited from a university hospital and randomized in a 2:1 ratio into TXT (one session of telephone counseling plus 2 weeks of text messaging; N = 44) or Standard Care control group (N = 22). Participants lost to follow-up were counted as smokers. Results Counselors sent 1186 texts, of which 924 (77.9%) were received by study participants. Participants rated the TXT content as “helpful” (80.4%) and the phone counseling length to be “just right” (95.1%). Although the study was not powered to evaluate abstinence rates, we did observe a higher prevalence of abstinence in the TXT compared to control group at both 1-month follow-up (25.0% vs. 9.1%) and 3-month follow-up (31.8% vs. 9.1%). Carbon monoxide-verified abstinence at month 3 was also higher in TXT (20.5% vs. 4.5%). Conclusions This hybrid telephone/text intervention should progress to full-scale effectiveness testing as it achieved favorable outcomes, was acceptable to participants, and was readily implemented. This type of intervention has strong potential for expanding the reach of hospital-initiated tobacco treatment in middle-/lower-income countries. Implications This study extends research on hospital-initiated smoking cessation by establishing the feasibility of a novel text-messaging approach for post-discharge follow-up. Text messaging is a low-cost alternative to proactive telephone counseling that could help overcome resource barriers in middle- and lower-income countries. This hybrid texting/counseling intervention identified smokers in hospitals, established rapport through a single telephone follow-up, and expanded acceptability and reach of later support by using text-messaging, which is free of charge in this and other low-income countries. The favorable cessation outcomes achieved by the hybrid intervention provide support for a fully powered effectiveness trial.