Make Your Phone a Personal Quit-Smoking Coach in Spanish!

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We know it’s not easy to quit smoking. You can do it with Quitxt!

Quitxt is a UT Health San Antonio service that sends text messages with culturally and regionally tailored support to help South Texans quit smoking.

The service, now available in Spanish and English, turns a user’s phone into a personal quit coach by providing texts and links to online support, educational content, music, and videos. This helps with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, handling stress, and more—and are proven to double your odds of quitting.

To join in English, text “iquit” to 844-332-2058.

For Spanish, text “lodejo” to 844-332-2058.

“If you’re thinking about quitting smoking and you’re always on your phone, Quitxt is a perfect program for you, whether you speak English or Spanish,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Quitxt and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. Quitxt is supported by a $1.4 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Smoking rates are high among Mexican Americans along the border and across South Texas, ranging up to 25.7 percent. This heightens the risk of cancer and heart disease.

But few culturally relevant, accessible programs target this problem.

With Quitxt, Dr. Ramirez aims to fill that gap.

Quitting smoking is proven to improve your health, increase your life span, and save money. So Dr. Ramirez adapted parts of proven federal tobacco cessation programs and built a texting system and content to fit the unique culture and linguistic styles of Latino young adults who smoke tobacco cigarettes across South Texas in San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Del Rio, McAllen, Brownsville, and Harlingen.

Quitxt first launched in English in 2015. More than 1 in 5 Quitxt users fully quit smoking after completing the English version, according to preliminary data. This quit rate is similar or better than other texting programs.

The Spanish version of Quitxt is now available, too.

“There’s no better time than now to get help from Quitxt to quit smoking,” Ramirez said.