CONSORT-EHEALTH Checklist V1.6.2 Report

"Smoking apprentices were proactively recruited via online screening in vocational school classes. " 1b-iv) RESULTS section in abstract must contain use data Abstract: "A total of 2638 apprentices of 178 vocational school classes in Switzerland participated in the online screening. 1012 persons met the inclusion criteria for study participation and 755 per-sons (74.6%) participated in the study (372 in the intervention group, 383 in the control group). 9 (2.4%) out of 372 participants of the intervention group unsubscribed from the program during the intervention period. 6-months follow-up was gathered in 559 study par-ticipants (74%). " 1b-v) CONCLUSIONS/DISCUSSION in abstract for negative trials Abstract, Conclusions: "The intervention did not have short-term effects on smoking cessation, however resulted in lower cigarette consumption and further beneficial effects on variables related to smoking cessation within the subgroup of occasional smokers. " INTRODUCTION 2a-i) Problem and the type of system/solution Introduction: "Tobacco use is a major cause of disease burden and the single most preventable cause of death in the world [1]. A survey among 15 and 16 year old adolescents covering 36 European countries revealed that the smoking prevalence rates of 28% having used cigarettes during the past 30 days remained rather stable over the last 4 years [2]. Smoking continues to be a serious problem, particularly in adolescents and young adults with lower educational level [3]. There is limited evidence of smoking cessation interventions demonstrating efficacy in young people [4, 5]. " "Mobile phone text messaging (SMS) is very popular among adolescents and young adults and has the potential to deliver smoking cessation support to large proportions of populations. Among 12-to-19-year-old adolescents from Switzerland 98% owned a mobile phone in the year 2010; use of the mobile phone was the most frequent leisure time activity in this popula-tion group [12]. Reading and sending SMS were the most frequent activities when using the mobile phone [12]. By use of expert system technology that provides information based on individual demo-graphic or smoking-related characteristics, electronic communication technology can be a viable, timeand cost-saving alternative to interpersonal counselling [13]. Particularly SMS provides opportunities for individualised and interactive information delivery that may easily be accessed, independent of time and place. " 2a-ii) Scientific background, rationale: What is known about the (type of) system Introduction: "To date, neither randomised controlled trials testing the efficacy of smoking cessation inter-ventions employing SMS in adolescents and young adults nor trials testing the efficacy of SMS interventions in proactively recruited smokers have been reported. Within three pilot studies in which young adult smokers, irrespective of their motivation to quit, were proac-tively invited to an SMS based smoking cessation intervention, high participation and reten-tion proportions could be achieved [16-18]. " METHODS 3a) CONSORT: Description of trial design (such as parallel, factorial) including allocation ratio Introduction: "Within the present cluster randomised trial, we tested the efficacy of an SMS based interven-tion for smoking cessation in a sample of proactively recruited apprentices with different motivation to quit. " 3b) CONSORT: Important changes to methods after trial commencement (such as eligibility criteria), with reasons Methods: Study design: "The study was implemented as described in the study protocol [19] with the following modi-fications: (1) due to smaller class sizes as expected and time restrictions, we could not reach the targeted sample size of 910 study participants but merely 755 study participants. (2) Self-efficacy for smoking cessation could not be assessed at follow-up and used as secondary out-come measures because the rating scale to assess this variable [20] could not be applied within the telephone interviews conducted at follow-up. (3) Nicotine dependence could not be calculated for occasional smokers using the Heaviness of Smoking Index [21]. Therefore, we used number of cigarettes smoked per day as an indicator of nicotine dependence and as outcome variable. " 3b-i) Bug fixes, Downtimes, Content Changes not applicable 4a) CONSORT: Eligibility criteria for participants Methods: Participant recruitment and baseline assessment: "Inclusion criteria for study participation were (1) daily or occasional cigarette smoking (at least 4 cigarettes in the preceding month and at least one cigarette during the preceding week) and (2) ownership of a mobile phone. " 4a-i) Computer / Internet literacy 4a-ii) Open vs. closed, web-based vs. face-to-face assessments: