Department of Psychiatry, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China.
Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China.
Addiction. 2021 May;116(5):1279-1290. doi: 10.1111/add.15166. Epub 2020 Jul 13.
Since its first release in 2011, WeChat (Chinese pinyin: Wei Xin) has been widely used to promote health. As the most popular all-in-one social media application providing free instant messaging, voice, text, pictures, videos and location information exchange via smartphone, WeChat holds promise for delivering smoking cessation services to a large number of people at low unit cost in China, a country with more than 300 million smokers. This protocol is for a study that aims to assess the efficacy of a WeChat-based smoking cessation intervention ('WeChat WeQuit') for treatment-seeking smokers in China.
In this two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT), the control group will receive only a digital version of a booklet of 'Happy Quit'. The intervention group will also receive the 2 weeks pre- and 12 weeks post-quit 'WeChat WeQuit' intervention. Both groups will be followed-up to 26 weeks (6 months) after quit day.
This on-line trial has no restrictions on setting or location.
Chinese-speaking current smokers (have smoked ≥100 cigarettes in their life-time and currently smoke cigarettes) aged 18+ years willing to make a quit attempt within 1 month (n = 2000) will be recruited by on- and off-line advertising. Potential participants will register their interest by sending WeChat messages or text messages, or making a voice call.
The primary outcome measure is self-reported 26-week continuous smoking abstinence with biological verification [test by clinic visit: expired carbon monoxide concentration <10 parts per million (p.p.m.) or by mailing cotinine urine dipsticks: urine cotinine <200 ng/ml]. Secondary outcome measures include: 7-day point prevalence abstinence at weeks 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 26 after-quit day; self-reported 12-week continuous smoking abstinence and 26-week continuous smoking abstinence; reductions in number of cigarettes smoked per day; and rates of participation in and completion of the smoking-cessation program.
If the 'WeChat WeQuit' program is found to be effective, it will be an accessible, affordable and widely implementable intervention to help cigarette smokers to quit. The potential public health impact of its expansion into underserved regions or communities is considerable.
自 2011 年首次发布以来，微信（中文拼音：Wei Xin）已被广泛用于促进健康。作为提供免费即时通讯、语音、文本、图片、视频和智能手机位置信息交换的最受欢迎的综合社交媒体应用程序，微信有望以低成本为中国超过 3 亿烟民提供戒烟服务，中国是一个烟民众多的国家。本方案是一项旨在评估基于微信的戒烟干预措施（“微信戒烟”）对中国寻求治疗的吸烟者疗效的研究。
在这项两臂随机对照试验（RCT）中，对照组仅接受数字版“快乐戒烟”手册。干预组还将接受戒烟前 2 周和戒烟后 12 周的“微信戒烟”干预。两组均随访至戒烟后 26 周（6 个月）。
这项在线试验对设置或地点没有限制。
年龄在 18 岁及以上、愿意在 1 个月内戒烟的中国籍当前吸烟者（一生中吸烟≥100 支，目前吸烟）（n=2000）将通过在线和离线广告招募。潜在参与者将通过发送微信消息或短信或打电话表达兴趣。
主要结局指标是自我报告的 26 周持续戒烟并经生物验证[通过门诊就诊测试：呼气一氧化碳浓度<10ppm（ppm）或通过邮寄可替宁尿液检测条测试：尿液可替宁<200ng/ml]。次要结局指标包括：戒烟后第 1、4、8、12、16、20 和 26 周时的 7 天点患病率戒烟；12 周和 26 周的持续戒烟；每日吸烟量减少；以及戒烟计划的参与率和完成率。
如果“微信戒烟”项目被证明有效，它将是一种可及、负担得起且广泛实施的干预措施，有助于帮助吸烟者戒烟。将其扩展到服务不足的地区或社区，可能会产生相当大的公共卫生影响。
