Clinical trial NCT04890223: Efficacy of Brief MI Delivered Via Mobile Instant Messaging to Help Unmotivated Smokers With Chronic Diseases to Quit
Official title: Efficacy of Brief Motivational Interviewing Delivered Via Mobile Instant Messaging Tools to Promote Smoking Cessation Among Unmotivated Smokers With Chronic Diseases
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Smoking Cessation
Lead sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-05-18
Enrollment: 728
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: This study aims to examine the efficacy of brief MI delivered by mobile instant messaging tools in promoting smoking cessation among unmotivated smokers with chronic diseases. Participants in the intervention group will receive a brief MI intervention while the control group will receive a placebo intervention.

Detailed description: Smoking plays a causal role in the development of chronic diseases and may increase the risk of disease progression or recurrence, elevate the risk of mortality, and reduce the efficacy of treatment for disease sufferers. However, a majority of smokers with chronic diseases are unmotivated, having no intention to quit. These characteristics underscore the critical need for appropriate and effective smoking cessation interventions targeting this population. Nevertheless, most existing smoking cessation services are generic, and none seems to target smokers suffering from chronic diseases. A systematic review indicated that no study had yet examined the efficacy of a smoking cessation intervention designed specifically for unmotivated smokers with chronic diseases. Though MI was effective in promoting smoking cessation among the general population, was not effective for smokers with chronic diseases, who as has been seen tend to be unmotivated smokers. Brief MI, accordingly, is better suited to reaching these smokers in clinical settings, but the application of this approach to smoking cessation contexts has not been well studied.

The proposed intervention will be designed to promote smoking cessation among unmotivated smokers with chronic diseases. To reduce the influence of the participants' baseline characteristics on the efficacy of the intervention, this study will be designed to motivate them to change a selected unfavourable behaviour as a means to reduce their resistance to the intervention. The foot-in-the-door technique served both to facilitate the recruitment for the study and to enhance the participants' compliance with the intervention, in the latter case by promoting change in their selected unfavourable behaviour as a preliminary to further change. The rationale is that a small successful step increases readiness to take a further, larger step, in this case, smoking cessation.

Given that the exponential growth in the number of users of mobile instant messaging tools, they represent a resource for efforts to promote health and enhance treatment compliance. These were among the considerations that informed the development in this study of an intervention using brief MI delivered by mobile instant messaging tools to facilitate smoking cessation among unmotivated smokers with chronic diseases.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Hong Kong Chinese over the age of 17
* Had smoked at least one cigarette per day over the previous three months
* Had been diagnosed with at least one chronic disease
* Able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese
* Willing to take action to improve their health but had no intention to quit smoking
* Had a smartphone and were able to use mobile instant messaging tools
* Willing to receive health promotion advice and communicate through mobile instant messaging

Exclusion Criteria:

* Participating in other smoking cessation programs or services
* With mental or cognitive impairment or communication problems

Primary outcomes:
measure: Biochemically validated smoking abstinence at 12 months
timeFrame: 12-month follow-up
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Biochemically validated smoking abstinence at 6 months
timeFrame: 6-month follow-up
measure: Self-reported smoking abstinence
timeFrame: 3-, 6-, or 12-month follow-ups
measure: Intention to quit
timeFrame: 3-, 6-, or 12-month follow-ups
measure: Self-reported smoking reduction of at least 50%
timeFrame: 3-, 6-, or 12-month follow-ups
measure: Quit attempts
timeFrame: 3-, 6-, or 12-month follow-ups
measure: Self-reported behavioural change
timeFrame: 3-, 6-, or 12-month follow-ups
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: Hong Kong
facility: University of Hong Kong
Study officials:
affiliation: Chinese University of Hong Kong
name: Ho Cheung William Li, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: