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The Purpose of this study was to synthesize evidence of the effects and potential effect modifiers of different electronic health (eHealth) interventions to help people quit smoking.

 

Four databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and The Cochrane Library) were searched in March 2017 using terms that included “smoking cessation”, “eHealth/mHealth” and “electronic technology” to find relevant studies. Meta-analysis and meta-regression analyses were performed.

Results: The review included 108 studies and 110,372 participants. Compared to nonactive control groups (eg, usual care), smoking cessation interventions using web-based and mobile health (mHealth) platform resulted in significantly greater smoking abstinence.

Similarly, smoking cessation trials using tailored text messages  and web-based information and conjunctive nicotine replacement therapy  may also increase cessation.

 

In contrast, little or no benefit for smoking abstinence was found for computer-assisted interventions. The magnitude of effect sizes from mHealth smoking cessation interventions was likely to be greater if the trial was conducted in the USA or Europe and when the intervention included individually tailored text messages. In contrast, high frequency of texts (daily) was less effective than weekly texts.

 

Conclusion

There was consistent evidence that web-based and mHealth smoking cessation interventions may increase abstinence moderately. Methodologic quality of trials and the intervention characteristics (tailored vs untailored) are critical effect modifiers among eHealth smoking cessation interventions, especially for web-based and text messaging trials. Future smoking cessation intervention should take advantages of web-based and mHealth engagement to improve prolonged abstinence. 

 

access the study report at https://www.dovepress.com/which-ehealth-interventions-are-most-effective-for-smoking-cessation-a-peer-reviewed-article-PPA

 

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