Quitxt Mobile Text Messaging Cessation Research Study

The health benefits of smoking cessation by age 30 are much greater than cessation later in life, including gaining 10 years of life, compared with those who continue to smoke. The goal of the proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the bilingual and culturally tailored Quitxt mobile cessation intervention. Quitxt provides interactive messages through texts or chat with visual and video content employing theory- and evidence-based techniques to prompt and sustain cessation. The study will recruit 1,200 Latino young adult smokers aged 18-29 who enroll and agree to make quit attempts, with half randomly assigned (like flipping a coin) to receive Quitxt and half to abbreviated text messages with smoking cessation-related content and referral to the Texas Department of State Health Services cessation program Yes Quit (which has diverse formats, but not explicitly tailored for young Latino adults in South Texas). Participants respond to baseline and follow-up assessments at one, three and six months after their enrollment, and those who report cessation will be asked to provide saliva samples to confirm they quit smoking. The sample size will be sufficient to detect expected higher cessation rates in those who are enrolled in Quitxt than those who are enrolled in Texas DSHS Yes Quit. The investigators will publish results in scientific journals, report them at scientific and community meetings, share them on social media, and publicize them widely. This study has the potential to advance public health by evaluating the effectiveness of a scalable, easily disseminated and adaptable intervention to help young adults, especially Latinos, quit smoking and reduce smoking-related cancer and chronic disease morbidity and mortality and their associated healthcare costs.