SMS The Latest Tool To Help Smokers Quit?

from the well,-maybe,-not-quite dept

A few years back there was a study saying that sending SMS text message reminders to smokers helped them quit. Unfortunately, as you started to dig into the study, there were some problems with it. It was still only a minority of folks in the program who quit (28%), and the researchers hadn't been able to follow up with patients just six months later to see if they had remained free of cigarettes. Now there's a new study out about SMS and smoking -- but it's a lot less ambitious. It just says that doctor's who send text messages to people to ask if they're smoking get a much better response than sending traditional letters. That's not much of a surprise, but it hardly means that the people responding to these text messages from their doctors are any more likely to quit smoking.
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  • identicon
    RandomThoughts, 29 Mar 2007 @ 8:18pm

    There are doctors that actually have the time to send a SMS message?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mark, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:06pm

    No

    I quit, pretty much cold turkey. Although, compared to lifetime smokers, my 14 years isn't much.

    What it took was ME saying no to a smoke even when drinking or otherwise. I know there may be many that are against this, but if you want to stop, you will.

    I actually enjoyed smoking, and the addiction wasn't blamed on some oral fixation or similar - I AM ADDICTED TO NICOTINE.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dylan, 29 Mar 2007 @ 9:17pm

    Smoking

    @Mark: I quit, pretty much cold turkey. Although, compared to lifetime smokers, my 14 years isn't much

    I cant imagine how hard it must be for you when you smoked 10 years more than me, 4 years and I just cant stand the withdrawl....DAMN MY YOUTHFULL REBELION!!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    SATAN, 29 Mar 2007 @ 10:25pm

    how the..

    How the fuck do you get started smoking? And why?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Smoke-less, 30 Mar 2007 @ 12:59am

    Get real.....

    Come on guys, get real... People won't quit smoking until THEY are ready. Having been a smoker for 25 years (2-3 packs of non-filtered smokes p/day) - I had 12 angioplasty's and it wasn't until my quad by-pass that I decided it was time to quit ( cold turkey ). And for the record..... It wasn't the tabacco companies fault. I was the one that voluntarily lit up and forced my body to accept the smoke and then continue to smoke after my heart attacks. Maybe i will see 40 yrs old yet :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 30 Mar 2007 @ 6:57am

      Re: Get real.....

      You got that straight.

      I tried to quit several times, once even lasting 6 miserable months that almost cost me my marriage. I tried gum, patches, cessation classes, whatever.

      The only thing I got from that was anger and frustration. Because I wasn't quitting for me. I was quitting because everyone wanted me too.

      Then one day, I decided to quit. It was a simple decision to make, and what really amazed me, was just how incredibly simple it was to do. My wife (in the navy) was out to sea when I did it too, and usually, that was my "heavy" smoking time, cause I didnt have to worry about nagging. I didnt even tell my wife when I quit. She came home to find a husband who didnt even need to wear the patch anymore. (I only needed the patch for 2 weeks to calm my nerves, it just kept me from having a heart attack every time the phone rang, kids got excited, whatnot)

      It has been over 2 years now, and not once have I thought about going back. I can stand in a crowd of smokers, and the only thought that goes through my head is "man, that shit stinks".

      Long story short: There is nothing a non-smoker can do to get a smoker to quit. Its like shaving a porcupine with a brick, the harder you try, the more agitated both parties get.

      I have smoked since I was 12 years old. I smoked until I was 27 years old.

      Quitting smoking was the easiest thing I have ever done.
      Deciding to quit smoking was the hardest thing I have ever done.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    fuse5k, 30 Mar 2007 @ 8:54am

    re how the fuck

    Smoking dope got me started...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ah-yep it was time!, 2 Apr 2007 @ 7:52am

    No more nails!

    So I read your comments all 8 some were good and truthful.
    Satan why do people start it like you picking up something and and you use it all the time. Just like your Lanquage.
    I would say I'm heading toward my senior years in life, got tired of the morning hacking and all day cough.
    Did mind being told I could not do this and that were I use to be able to.
    The botton line was for 50 years I smoked, and as year passed, I seen many good friend just up and catch that C. some lived and some died.
    I would attend the services and go out and smoke?

    As years went by I tryed every Voodo thing they had out there to stop, one of them I lasted 2 almost months.

    The one that has worked so far 10 month (I'm praying) is I took 2 cartons of butts plus the Pack 1 had in my pocket. Except one Smoke and put it in the Trash. I got tired of Hacking said that is IT.
    Then I put that one Smoke on my dresser next to my Childrens picture and Grand Daughters. Said "This Nail won't get Grampie".

    Believe it or not I have not wanted nor craved even a puff and my wife smokes in the house year for 10 months, I smoked 3 packs a day!
    My Darling wife gave me 2 hours, My youngest daughter gave me a day
    MY 7 year old Grand Daughter said She Loves her Grampie, I didn't tell her I quit. Maybe that was the drive I needed.
    So my feeling ONLY YOU can make YOU Quit.
    Without that ingredient your waisting YOUR TIME

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Oby Tolman, 14 Apr 2007 @ 8:46pm

    SMS

    Quitting is step one and staying quit is step two. Doesn't much matter if you quit Cold Turkey or gradually and the statistics prove it. 46.5 million people are ex-smokers but that's the sum total of all people who've quit over the last 40 or 50 years or so and are still alive today. That's far less than 2 million annually. Since 1990 the smoking population has been steady at around 44-45 million which means that about 5% of the smoking population quits permanently each year (i.e. 2 million is what percent of 44 million) and just as many start smoking - virtually no progress in the last 17 years no matter how you try to spin it. What that means is that regardless of the smoking cessation method involved the recidivism rate is just abysmal. That's because it isn't the nicotine that brings you back and that's all that the current methods address: how to get you off of nicotine but not how to keep you from relapsing. Slogans like "Just Say No" and "Not Another Puff" are euphemisms for "Will Power" and don't work any better today than they did 100 years ago.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    JOHN, 25 Aug 2009 @ 6:44pm

    TOPICAL AND HEALTH RELATED

    1. TOPICAL AND HEALTH RELATED , AND POTENTIALLY AFFECTING BILLIONS OF PEOPLE ( MANY HAVE ALREADY DIED )
    2. PLEASE VISIT www.pluslifestyle24-7.webs.com
    3. IF YOU FEEL THAT THE WEBSITE WILL BE OFF POSITIVE BENEFIT TO OTHERS THEN PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THE WEBSITE AS YOU WISH
    4. REGARDS TO ALL FROM......... UNCLE JOHN

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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