A University of Auckland study has shown that text messages can help young smokers quit cigarettes.

Quit rates at six weeks of young smokers receiving active text support on Stomp, or the Stop Smoking with Mobile Phones Trial, were double those in a control group, the international journal Tobacco Control reported.

The trial was developed and run by the Clinical Trials Research Unit (CTRU) at the University of Auckland, to target young smokers who have the highest smoking rates but are least likely to enrol in existing programmes.

Dr Anthony Rodgers, director of the CTRU, said the approach had real promise in helping young adults kick the habit, and harnessing the global boom in texting could be a new weapon to combat a similarly large escalation in youth smoking.

"This is a very encouraging result. We want to develop the concept further but this trial confirms that a text-based approach has the potential to be a powerful resource in reaching and helping young smokers," Dr Rodgers said.

The development was supported by Auckland UniServices Limited, the commercialisation company of the University, and it was conducted with the help of the National Heart Foundation, the Cancer Society, Vodafone and Alcatel.

Vodafone New Zealand's health sector manager, Dr Malcolm Miller, said it was great to see a truly creative approach developed in New Zealand show such strong results.

"We view Stomp as just one of the first applications off the rank to use advances in mobile technology to help individuals become experts in managing their wellness."

He said Vodafone was also looking at other applications such as e.fitness, e.nutrition, and diabetes and cardiovascular intervention programs.
The Ministry of Health has said it will support the project and has committed to working with the CTRU and providers of mobile phone services on ways to make the development more widely available to young people.

There were 1705 young smokers from around New Zealand (who all wanted to quit) enrolled in Stomp. Half of them were in an "active" group and received intensive text intervention leading up to an agreed quit date and one month of free texting.

This included regular personalised text messages that encouraged them to give up smoking or provided distraction at the key moment when tempted to light up.

"There are several ways we think it worked," said Dr Rodgers. "Free texting acted like "chewing gum for the fingers" and helped with distraction as people texted friends and family. We sent personalised texts on things like coping with urges to smoke, avoiding weight gain, and just plain general interest stuff on sports, music and fashion.