Text Messages Offer Lifeline: New Study Shows Mobile Support Dramatically Boosts Quit Rates for TB Patients Who Smoke

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Text Messages Offer Lifeline: New Study Shows Mobile Support Dramatically Boosts Quit Rates for TB Patients Who Smoke

ISLAMABAD – A groundbreaking study conducted in Pakistan and Bangladesh reveals that simple, encouraging text messages can more than double the quit rate for tuberculosis (TB) patients who smoke, potentially accelerating their recovery and saving lives. Published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the research offers a practical, affordable, and easily scalable intervention for a critical public health challenge.

The trial, co-led by The Initiative, a public health research organization based in Islamabad, involved 1,080 TB patients who smoked and had access to a mobile phone. Participants were divided into two groups: 720 received daily supportive text messages for two months, followed by monthly messages for four more months, while 360 received standard printed information.

The results were striking: after six months, over 41% of those in the text-message group had successfully quit smoking, compared to just over 15% in the group that received only printed advice. Beyond smoking cessation, the study also reported a significantly lower death rate in the text-message group (3.5%) compared to the usual-care group (7.5%), highlighting the profound impact of quitting on overall health outcomes for TB patients.

Professor Kamran Siddiqi, Professor of Public Health at Hull York Medical School, University of York, UK, who led the study, emphasized the findings: “We know that people who quit smoking can recover from TB faster, so we tested whether sending encouraging and supportive text messages could help patients quit more quickly than the usual written advice. The results show a clear difference between the groups.”

Dr. Umar Awan from the Punjab TB Control Programme (PTP) praised the intervention’s feasibility, stating, “From a programme perspective, this is an intervention we can realistically deliver. It is affordable, straightforward to implement, and fits well within routine TB care, helping us tackle tobacco use among TB patients at scale in Pakistan.”

Dr. Amina Khan, Executive Director of The Initiative, Islamabad, and Principal Investigator from Pakistan, highlighted the accessibility of the approach: “What makes this approach so powerful is that it can reach patients using the phones they already have. It’s a simple way to extend stop-smoking support to people who might otherwise never be offered it.”

Ms. Maham Zahid, Lead Author of the publication and Research Fellow on the study, underscored the timely nature of the findings: “At a time when healthcare systems are rapidly adopting digital innovations, this study demonstrates that low-cost mobile messaging can deliver stronger behaviour-change interventions effectively. It underscores that this is the right moment to embrace technology-driven solutions to achieve better healthcare outcomes.”

The study concludes that this text-message-based support not only helps patients quit smoking but also reduces the risk of serious tobacco-related illnesses like cancer and heart disease, and critically, may save lives in the short term by reducing TB-related deaths.