Cargando…
Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel
BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a main cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Many young adults begin smoking in the military, with smoking rates higher among soldiers than in the general population. Among other health effects, smoking impairs performance among soldiers. Smoking cessation pr...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2019
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6593531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31238914 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6958-z |
_version_ | 1783430067719766016 |
---|---|
author | Bary-Weisberg, Dov Meltser, Marina Oberman, Maya Pato Benari, Avital Bar-Zeev, Yael Shalev, Sarit Berg, Carla J. Abroms, Lorien C. Levine, Hagai |
author_facet | Bary-Weisberg, Dov Meltser, Marina Oberman, Maya Pato Benari, Avital Bar-Zeev, Yael Shalev, Sarit Berg, Carla J. Abroms, Lorien C. Levine, Hagai |
author_sort | Bary-Weisberg, Dov |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a main cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Many young adults begin smoking in the military, with smoking rates higher among soldiers than in the general population. Among other health effects, smoking impairs performance among soldiers. Smoking cessation programs in the military are challenging due to the unique settings and low access to smoking cessation resources. Studies have shown that text-messaging smoking cessation programs are feasible and effective, but there is a lack of studies on soldiers. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program tailored for soldiers. METHODS: We recruited 81 soldiers who smoked, 76.5% of whom were male. Following enrollment, participants filled out a baseline survey and were given a text messaging program for 6 months. Participants could send predetermined keywords and immediately receive a response from a list of messages that were constructed as a response to the specific keyword. Participants filled out a follow-up survey at 1 month. Additionally, we retrieved and analyzed program usage data, including keywords sent and received, for the entire program period. Based on the follow-up survey and the program usage data, we assessed feasibility of the recruitment methods, participants’ engagement and satisfaction and technical usability of the program. RESULTS: At 1 month, 20.6% reported that they had not smoked in the past week. A high percentage of the participants were engaged in the program, with 82.5% sending at least one valid keyword. The lowest self-efficacy group had higher chances of leaving the program (50.0%) while for the highest group there were much lower chances (4.8%). Most of the soldiers (96.8%) found the program easy to use and would recommend it to a friend (84.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that a text-messaging smoking cessation program is feasible in a military setting. Further development and evaluation of digital smoking cessation tools tailored for soldiers are warranted. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6593531 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65935312019-07-09 Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel Bary-Weisberg, Dov Meltser, Marina Oberman, Maya Pato Benari, Avital Bar-Zeev, Yael Shalev, Sarit Berg, Carla J. Abroms, Lorien C. Levine, Hagai BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a main cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Many young adults begin smoking in the military, with smoking rates higher among soldiers than in the general population. Among other health effects, smoking impairs performance among soldiers. Smoking cessation programs in the military are challenging due to the unique settings and low access to smoking cessation resources. Studies have shown that text-messaging smoking cessation programs are feasible and effective, but there is a lack of studies on soldiers. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program tailored for soldiers. METHODS: We recruited 81 soldiers who smoked, 76.5% of whom were male. Following enrollment, participants filled out a baseline survey and were given a text messaging program for 6 months. Participants could send predetermined keywords and immediately receive a response from a list of messages that were constructed as a response to the specific keyword. Participants filled out a follow-up survey at 1 month. Additionally, we retrieved and analyzed program usage data, including keywords sent and received, for the entire program period. Based on the follow-up survey and the program usage data, we assessed feasibility of the recruitment methods, participants’ engagement and satisfaction and technical usability of the program. RESULTS: At 1 month, 20.6% reported that they had not smoked in the past week. A high percentage of the participants were engaged in the program, with 82.5% sending at least one valid keyword. The lowest self-efficacy group had higher chances of leaving the program (50.0%) while for the highest group there were much lower chances (4.8%). Most of the soldiers (96.8%) found the program easy to use and would recommend it to a friend (84.1%). CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that a text-messaging smoking cessation program is feasible in a military setting. Further development and evaluation of digital smoking cessation tools tailored for soldiers are warranted. BioMed Central 2019-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6593531/ /pubmed/31238914 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6958-z Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Bary-Weisberg, Dov Meltser, Marina Oberman, Maya Pato Benari, Avital Bar-Zeev, Yael Shalev, Sarit Berg, Carla J. Abroms, Lorien C. Levine, Hagai Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title | Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title_full | Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title_fullStr | Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title_full_unstemmed | Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title_short | Feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in Israel |
title_sort | feasibility of a text-messaging smoking cessation program for soldiers in israel |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6593531/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31238914 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6958-z |
work_keys_str_mv | AT baryweisbergdov feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT meltsermarina feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT obermanmaya feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT patobenariavital feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT barzeevyael feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT shalevsarit feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT bergcarlaj feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT abromslorienc feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael AT levinehagai feasibilityofatextmessagingsmokingcessationprogramforsoldiersinisrael |