Technology and Smoking Cessation: Are Personalised Emails Effective for Would-be Quitters?
A new American Cancer Society study published in the journal Tobacco Control suggests that regularly receiving personalised emails with tips for quitting amongst other information could be as effective at reducing the rate of smoking as medical alternatives.
New communication technologies such as email, the Internet and smartphones, offer greater scope for cessation initiatives in reaching as many people as possible while remaining relatively cheap to sustain.
For this particular study, the lead author notes: "It appears that the personalization in the emails and their frequency -- initially every day then tapering off -- gave people the assurance that someone cared about them, and wanted them to succeed. They were receiving daily or nearly-daily guidance about how to deal with issues that come up in their quit attempt, made possible by a relatively simple computer tailoring algorithm."
