Pechmann Cornelia Ann, Calder Douglas, Phillips Connor, Delucchi Kevin, Prochaska Judith J
The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2020 Jan 14;9(1):e16417. doi: 10.2196/16417.
Existing smoking cessation treatments are challenged by low engagement and high relapse rates, suggesting the need for more innovative, accessible, and interactive treatment strategies. Twitter is a Web-based platform that allows people to communicate with each other throughout the day using their phone.
This study aims to leverage the social media platform of Twitter for fostering peer-to-peer support to decrease relapse with quitting smoking. Furthermore, the study will compare the effects of coed versus women-only groups on women's success with quitting smoking.
The study design is a Web-based, three-arm randomized controlled trial with two treatment arms (a coed or women-only Twitter support group) and a control arm. Participants are recruited online and are randomized to one of the conditions. All participants will receive 8 weeks of combination nicotine replacement therapy (patches plus their choice of gum or lozenges), serial emails with links to Smokefree.gov quit guides, and instructions to record their quit date online (and to quit smoking on that date) on a date falling within a week of initiation of the study. Participants randomized to a treatment arm are placed in a fully automated Twitter support group (coed or women-only), paired with a buddy (matched on age, gender, location, and education), and encouraged to communicate with the group and buddy via daily tweeted discussion topics and daily automated feedback texts (a positive tweet if they tweet and an encouraging tweet if they miss tweeting). Recruited online from across the continental United States, the sample consists of 215 male and 745 female current cigarette smokers wanting to quit, aged between 21 and 59 years. Self-assessed follow-up surveys are completed online at 1, 3, and 6 months after the date they selected to quit smoking, with salivary cotinine validation at 3 and 6 months. The primary outcome is sustained biochemically confirmed abstinence at the 6-month follow-up.
From November 2016 to September 2018, 960 participants in 36 groups were recruited for the randomized controlled trial, in addition to 20 participants in an initial pilot group. Data analysis will commence soon for the randomized controlled trial based on data from 896 of the 960 participants (93.3%), with 56 participants lost to follow-up and 8 dropouts.
This study combines the mobile platform of Twitter with a support group for quitting smoking. Findings will inform the efficacy of virtual peer-to-peer support groups for quitting smoking and potentially elucidate gender differences in quit rates found in prior research.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02823028; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02823028.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/16417.
现有的戒烟治疗面临参与度低和复发率高的挑战，这表明需要更具创新性、可及性和互动性的治疗策略。推特是一个基于网络的平台，人们可以使用手机全天相互交流。
本研究旨在利用推特的社交媒体平台促进同伴支持，以降低戒烟后的复发率。此外，该研究将比较男女混合组与仅限女性组对女性戒烟成功率的影响。
该研究设计为一项基于网络的三臂随机对照试验，有两个治疗组（男女混合或仅限女性的推特支持组）和一个对照组。参与者通过网络招募并随机分配到其中一个组。所有参与者将接受8周的联合尼古丁替代疗法（贴片加他们选择的口香糖或含片）、带有无烟.gov戒烟指南链接的系列电子邮件，以及在研究开始后一周内的某个日期在线记录其戒烟日期（并在该日期戒烟）的说明。随机分配到治疗组的参与者被置于一个全自动的推特支持组（男女混合或仅限女性），与一位好友配对（在年龄、性别、地点和教育程度上匹配），并被鼓励通过每日发布的讨论话题和每日自动反馈文本与该组和好友交流（如果他们发布推文则发送一条积极的推文，如果他们错过发布推文则发送一条鼓励的推文）。从美国大陆各地通过网络招募，样本包括215名男性和745名想要戒烟的成年女性吸烟者，年龄在21至59岁之间。在他们选择戒烟日期后的1、3和6个月通过网络完成自我评估的随访调查，并在3和6个月进行唾液可替宁验证。主要结局是在6个月随访时经生化确认的持续戒烟。
从2016年11月到2018年9月，除了初始试点组的20名参与者外，36个组的960名参与者被招募参加随机对照试验。基于960名参与者中896名（93.3%）的数据，随机对照试验的数据分析即将开始，有56名参与者失访，8名退出。
本研究将推特的移动平台与戒烟支持组相结合。研究结果将为虚拟同伴支持组戒烟的疗效提供信息，并可能阐明先前研究中发现的戒烟率性别差异。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02823028；https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02823028。
国际注册报告识别码（IRRID）：DERR1-10.2196/16417。
