Free Texting Program Can Help You Quit Smoking

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Smoking is a tough opponent to beat.

Quitxt is a new free text-message service that turns your mobile phone into a personal coach to help you quit smoking, using interactive and entertaining texts, online support, and music and videos from researchers at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The service’s text messages help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, finding things to do instead of smoking, handling stress, and more.

To join, text “iquit” to 57682 or visit quitxt.org.

“Text-message applications have scientifically proven to roughly double one’s odds of quitting smoking, so we developed Quitxt specifically for young adult Latinos to help them quit for good,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, study leader and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center.

Smoking rates are high among Mexican Americans along the border and across South Texas, ranging from 23.2% to 25.7%, heightening the risk of cancer and heart disease.

But few culturally relevant, accessible programs target this problem.

In response, Ramirez and her team joined with text-message system expert Dr. David Akopian of UT San Antonio to develop the Quitxt texting and online support service. They adapted components of proven federal tobacco cessation programs and built a texting system and content to fit the unique culture and linguistic styles of Latinos who smoke tobacco cigarettes in San Antonio, Laredo, Del Rio, and across South Texas.

Quitxt is now enrolling English-speaking smokers ages 18 and older.

The service, made possible by a $1.4 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, will also be rolled out in Spanish in early 2017.

Join Quitxt today by texting “iquit” to 57682.