Effects of a Text Messaging Smoking Cessation Intervention Among Online Help Seekers and Primary Health Care Visitors in Sweden: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial Using a Bayesian Group Sequential Design

BACKGROUND: A steady decline of the smoking prevalence in Sweden has been recorded over the past decade; however, people still start and continue to smoke. There is a need for effective smoking cessation interventions that can scale to a national level and that are designed to reach individuals requiring smoking cessation support in the general population. OBJECTIVE: Previous randomized controlled trials of smoking cessation interventions among high school and university students in Sweden have found consistent evidence that text messaging interventions are effective in helping students quit smoking. However, there are no studies that investigate the effects of text messaging interventions in a more general population. The objective of this study is to estimate the effects of a text messaging intervention on individuals seeking help to quit online and individuals visiting primary health care units. METHODS: A 2-arm, parallel-group (1:1), randomized controlled trial will be employed to address the study objectives. The trial will follow a Bayesian group sequential design. Recruitment will be conducted using online advertisement (Google, Bing, and Facebook) and through health care professionals at primary health care units. All participants will receive treatment as usual; however, participants who are allocated to the intervention arm will also be given access to a 12-week text message smoking cessation intervention. Primary outcomes are 8-week prolonged abstinence and 4-week point prevalence, measured 3 months and 6 months postrandomization. Mediator variables (self-efficacy, importance, and know-how) will be measured to estimate causal mediation models. RESULTS: Recruitment commenced in September 2020 and will not exceed 24 months. This means that a complete dataset will be available at the latest towards the end of 2022. We expect to publish the findings from this trial by June 2023. CONCLUSIONS: This trial will further our understanding of the effects of text messaging interventions among a more general population than has previously been studied. We also aim to learn about differential effects between those who seek support online and those who are given facilitated support at primary health care units. Trial recruitment is limited to the Swedish population; however, a strength of this study is the pragmatic way in which participants are recruited. Through online advertisements, individuals are recruited in reaction to their own interest in seeking help to quit. At primary health care units, individuals who were not necessarily looking for smoking cessation support are given information about the trial. This closely mimics the way the intervention would be disseminated in a real-world setting and may therefore strengthen the argument of generalizability of findings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN 13455271; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13455271. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/23677