Developing and Scaling a Text Messaging Tool to Help Pregnant Smokers

The goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness (Phase II) of a text-based program to be called Quit4Baby to support smoking cessation efforts of pregnant women who smoke.

In Phase II, Dr. Abroms will conduct a randomized clinical trial among 500 pregnant smokers who have been recruited from users of text4baby - the first large scale mobile health application in the United States. Developed and operated by Voxiva and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies (HMHB)-collaborators in this program -text4baby is a free national service that has enrolled more than 800,000 pregnant women and mothers of infants 0-1 nationwide and delivered more than 150 million health messages to them including messages encouraging them not to smoke during pregnancy and referring them to quit lines.

Hypothesis 1: Pregnant smokers who receive quit4Baby + text4Baby will demonstrate higher levels of knowledge about the dangers of second hand smoke and the benefits of smoking cessation for mothers and their infants than text4baby only users.

Hypothesis 2: Pregnant smokers who receive quit4baby + text4baby will report significantly higher rates of calling a quit line, discussions with their health provider and/or use of cessation counseling than those who receive Text4baby alone.

Hypothesis 3: Pregnant smokers who receive quit4baby + text4baby will have significantly more favorable quitting outcomes compared with text4baby alone.