Effectiveness of WhatsApp Online Group Discussion for Smoking Relapse Prevention

NCT03760224 | Completed Results

• 1 other identifier: Relapse Prevention 2018
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 928
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study aims to examine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of WhatsApp group discussion for smoking relapse prevention. To assess the effect due to treatment modality through the WhatsApp social group, the frequency and topics of the posts in each social group will be analysed and in each participant. The primary hypothesis is whether quitters who participate in the WhatsApp group discussion will have a higher prevalence of validated tobacco abstinence at 12-month follow-up than those who do not. The second hypothesis is that greater participation in the social groups, indicated by number of posts received, posted and/or viewed, was associated with higher likelihood to quit at 12-month. The third hypothesis is that the WhatsApp intervention for a recent quitter is a more cost-effective option for tobacco abstinence and prolonged survival when compared to the control group.

Conditions

Smoking Cessation

Keywords

Intervention; WhatsApp; Smoking Cessation; Relapse Prevention; Group Disscussion

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Number of Participants Who Passed the Biochemical Validated Abstinence at 12-month Follow-up

  Exhaled carbon monoxide below 4ppm using a Smokerlyzer, and a saliva cotinine 10ng/ml or below using the iScreen OFD Cotinine Saliva Test Kit

  12 month

Secondary Outcomes (10)

• Number of Participants Who Passed the Biochemical Validated Abstinence at 6-month Follow-up

  6 month

• Number of Participants Who Self-reported 7-day Abstinence at 3-month Follow-up

  3 month

• Number of Participants Self-reported 7-day Abstinence at 6-month Follow-up

  6 month

• Number of Participants Self-reported 7-day Abstinence at 12-month Follow-up

  12 month

• Number of Participants Who Reported Smoking Relapse at 3-month Follow-up

  3 month

Other Outcomes (14)

• Frequency of Smoking Urge

  3 month

• Intensity of Smoking Urge

  3 month

• Frequency of Smoking Urge

  6 month

Study Arms (2)

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

WhatsApp group will receive at least 3 messages each week and allow real-time group discussion for the intervention period (8 weeks).

Other: WhatsApp group

Control

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The control group will receive 3 mobile phone text messages each week in the 8 weeks after recruitment. This will be a one way message and no real-time discussion will be available.

Other: SMS group

Interventions

WhatsApp group OTHER

WhatsApp group will allow real-time group discussion for 8 weeks

Intervention

SMS group OTHER

SMS group for 8 weeks

Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Daily tobacco user before service intake
• Aged 18 years or above
• Have enrolled or re-enrolled in the smoking cessation treatment for no more than 8 weeks
• Not using tobacco products (including traditional cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products) for 3 to 30 days
• Able to communicate in Cantonese/Mandarin and read Chinese
• Have a smart phone with local network connection

You may not qualify if:

• Do not use WhatsApp as communication tool and show no interest to use WhatsApp
• Have unstable physical or psychological conditions as advised by doctors or counsellor in charge
• Have become pregnant in the past 2 months

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Hong Kong: lead

Study Sites (1)

Hong Kong University

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Related Publications (23)

• Mackay JM, Bettcher DW, Minhas R, Schotte K. Successes and new emerging challenges in tobacco control: addressing the vector. Tob Control. 2012 Mar;21(2):77-9. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050433. No abstract available.

  PMID: 22345225 BACKGROUND

• Lam TH. Absolute risk of tobacco deaths: one in two smokers will be killed by smoking: comment on "Smoking and all-cause mortality in older people". Arch Intern Med. 2012 Jun 11;172(11):845-6. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1927. No abstract available.

  PMID: 22688993 BACKGROUND

• Segan CJ, Borland R, Greenwood KM. Can transtheoretical model measures predict relapse from the action stage of change among ex-smokers who quit after calling a quitline? Addict Behav. 2006 Mar;31(3):414-28. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.05.023. Epub 2005 Jul 7.

  PMID: 16005158 BACKGROUND

• Ockene JK, Emmons KM, Mermelstein RJ, Perkins KA, Bonollo DS, Voorhees CC, Hollis JF. Relapse and maintenance issues for smoking cessation. Health Psychol. 2000 Jan;19(1S):17-31. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.19.suppl1.17.

  PMID: 10709945 BACKGROUND

• Agboola S, McNeill A, Coleman T, Leonardi Bee J. A systematic review of the effectiveness of smoking relapse prevention interventions for abstinent smokers. Addiction. 2010 Aug;105(8):1362-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02996.x.

  PMID: 20653619 BACKGROUND

• Coley HL, Sadasivam RS, Williams JH, Volkman JE, Schoenberger YM, Kohler CL, Sobko H, Ray MN, Allison JJ, Ford DE, Gilbert GH, Houston TK; National Dental PBRN and QUITPRIMO Collaborative Group. Crowdsourced peer- versus expert-written smoking-cessation messages. Am J Prev Med. 2013 Nov;45(5):543-50. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2013.07.004.

  PMID: 24139766 BACKGROUND

• Struik LL, Baskerville NB. The role of Facebook in Crush the Crave, a mobile- and social media-based smoking cessation intervention: qualitative framework analysis of posts. J Med Internet Res. 2014 Jul 11;16(7):e170. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3189.

  PMID: 25016998 BACKGROUND

• Whittaker R, McRobbie H, Bullen C, Borland R, Rodgers A, Gu Y. Mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Nov 14;11:CD006611. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006611.pub3.

  PMID: 23152238 BACKGROUND

• Selby P, van Mierlo T, Voci SC, Parent D, Cunningham JA. Online social and professional support for smokers trying to quit: an exploration of first time posts from 2562 members. J Med Internet Res. 2010 Aug 18;12(3):e34. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1340.

  PMID: 20719739 BACKGROUND

• Duke JC, Hansen H, Kim AE, Curry L, Allen J. The use of social media by state tobacco control programs to promote smoking cessation: a cross-sectional study. J Med Internet Res. 2014 Jul 10;16(7):e169. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3430.

  PMID: 25014311 BACKGROUND

• Pechmann C, Delucchi K, Lakon CM, Prochaska JJ. Randomised controlled trial evaluation of Tweet2Quit: a social network quit-smoking intervention. Tob Control. 2017 Mar;26(2):188-194. doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052768. Epub 2016 Feb 29.

  PMID: 26928205 BACKGROUND

• Cheung YT, Chan CH, Lai CK, Chan WF, Wang MP, Li HC, Chan SS, Lam TH. Using WhatsApp and Facebook Online Social Groups for Smoking Relapse Prevention for Recent Quitters: A Pilot Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res. 2015 Oct 22;17(10):e238. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4829.

  PMID: 26494159 BACKGROUND

• Cheung YTD, Chan CHH, Wang MP, Li HCW, Lam TH. Online Social Support for the Prevention of Smoking Relapse: A Content Analysis of the WhatsApp and Facebook Social Groups. Telemed J E Health. 2017 Jun;23(6):507-516. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2016.0176. Epub 2016 Dec 2.

  PMID: 27911654 BACKGROUND

• Hughes JR, Keely J, Naud S. Shape of the relapse curve and long-term abstinence among untreated smokers. Addiction. 2004 Jan;99(1):29-38. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00540.x.

  PMID: 14678060 BACKGROUND

• Chen AT, Zhu SH, Conway M. What Online Communities Can Tell Us About Electronic Cigarettes and Hookah Use: A Study Using Text Mining and Visualization Techniques. J Med Internet Res. 2015 Sep 29;17(9):e220. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4517.

  PMID: 26420469 BACKGROUND

• Census & Statistics Department (Hong Kong SAR government). Thematic Household Survey, Report No. 59: Pattern of Smoking. Hong Kong: Census & Statistics Department 2016.

  BACKGROUND

• World Health Organization. Parties to the WHO framework convention on tobacco control, 2012. http://www.who.int/fctc/signatories_parties/en/index.html#. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012.

  BACKGROUND

• Marlatt G, Gordon J. Determinants of relapse: implications for the maintenance of behavior change. In: Davidson PO, Davidson SM, editors. Behavioral Medicine: Changing Health Lifestyles. New York: Brunner/Mazel; 1980. p. 410 - 52.

  BACKGROUND

• Phua J. Participating in Health Issue-Specific Social Networking Sites to Quit Smoking: How Does Online Social Interconnectedness Influence Smoking Cessation Self-Efficacy? J Commun. 2013;63(5):933-52. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12054.

  BACKGROUND

• Fiore MC, Jaén CR, Baker TB, Bailey WC, Benowitz NL, Curry SJ, et al. Treating tobacco use and dependence: 2008 update. Rockvill: MD: Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.

  BACKGROUND

• Snyder CR, Lopez SJ. Positive psychology : the scientific and practical explorations of human strengths Thousands Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications; 2007.

  BACKGROUND

• Blei DM, Ng AY, Jordan MI. Latent dirichlet allocation. J Mach Learn Res. 2003;3:993-1022.

  BACKGROUND

• Blei DM. Probabilistic topic models. Commun ACM. 2012;55(4):77-84. doi: 10.1145/2133806.2133826.

  BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Smoking Cessation

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Health Behavior; Behavior

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Dr. Derek Cheung
• Organization: University of Hong Kong

derekcheung@hku.hk

39176652

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: Yes
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Research Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 12, 2018
• First Posted: November 30, 2018
• Study Start: October 4, 2018
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2020
• Study Completion: June 30, 2021
• Last Updated: July 18, 2022
• Results First Posted: July 18, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, CSR, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: 3 years

Locations

HK (1)