Using Information Communication Technology (Whatsapp/WeChat) to Deliver Brief Motivational Interviewing (i-BMI) to Promote Smoking Cessation Among Smokers With Chronic Diseases

Smoking exerts harmful effects on nearly every organ of the body and causes 7 million deaths worldwide each year. In Hong Kong, despite a decrease in the prevalence of daily cigarette smoking from 23.3% in 1982 to 10.0% in 2017, there are still 615,000 daily smokers. The evidence has shown that continued smoking in patients with chronic diseases can reduce the efficacy of medical treatments and increase the risk of treatment-related side effects. Nevertheless, many smokers with chronic diseases have a long smoking history, a strong nicotine dependency, and have not attempted or have no intention to quit. It is essential to develop and evaluate a more innovative and effective intervention to enhance the acceptability of smoking cessation for smokers with chronic diseases.

The proposed intervention will aim to facilitate the movement through five stages of change (pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance)15 via the (i) foot-in-the-door technique and (ii) a brief MI. The World Health Organization defines medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices as mobile health, a new strategy to promote health.21 Instant messaging, such as WhatsApp/WeChat delivered by mobile devices, is widely used for health promotion and treatment compliance.22 One advantage of using WhatsApp/WeChat is that it can offer quick, real-time interactions and continuing professional advice and support for subjects to manage their health-related lifestyle practices. Most importantly, WhatsApp/WeChat is more flexible, efficient and time-saving compared to face-to-face meetings to deliver a brief MI as face-to-face meetings would require the subjects to return several times for interventions. A systematic review of the use of mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation showed that smokers who received instant messages via mobile phones were more likely to abstain from smoking compared to those who used traditional face-to-face cessation services.23 A recent study conducted by our team in Hong Kong also showed that the use of WhatsApp for instant messaging was more effective in smoking relapse prevention for recent quitters.24 However, we found no reports or proposals based on the above conceptual framework and strategies in which ICTs were used with smokers who had no intention to quit.