Text Your Way to Quitting

One of the most difficult issues smokers face as they go through the change of quitting smoking is the hand-to-mouth action, or “ritual.” It’s one of the reasons they tend to snack more…and that non-smoking advocacy groups offer suggestions such as playing with pencils or paper clips. Bor-ing!

Fortunately, new research in New Zealand has found something much more useful for new non-smokers’ idle hands: specialized text messages. In early clinical trials, the text messaging program more than doubled the success rate of staying a non-smoker when people were checked on six weeks later. Those who are trying to quit smoking can sign up to have regular text messages sent that contain personalized quitting-smoking advice, support or just plain distractions. As researchers called it, it’s like “chewing gum for your fingers.”

The brilliance of this program is that it’s targeted against the right demographic. Many smokers are young: between the ages of 18 and 34, which is the same group most likely to spend a significant amount of time texting anyway.

Would you sign up for this program if it makes it to the United States? [The New Zealand Herald]