ঢাকাবৃহস্পতিবার , ৬ অগাস্ট ২০২৬
Mobile phone text messages can play a pivotal role in helping tuberculosis (TB) patients quit smoking, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), while the study shows that TB patients who quit smoking recover faster and experience lower mortality rates during treatment.
Titled “A mHealth (Mobile Health) Intervention for Smoking Cessation in People with Tuberculosis: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial,” the study was led by Professor Kamran Siddiqi, Professor of Public Health at the Hull York Medical School, with Professor Rumana Huque, Executive Director of ARK Foundation and Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka.
The study evaluated the effectiveness of mHealth technology in supporting tobacco cessation among TB patients in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Researchers conducted a cluster-randomized clinical trial in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Punjab (Pakistan), comparing motivational and supportive text messages with standard printed smoking cessation materials.
Of the 1,080 participants enrolled in the trial, 720 received supportive text messages, sent daily for the first two months and monthly for the following four months, while the remaining 360 participants received standard written advice on quitting smoking.
The findings revealed that nearly three times as many participants who received text messages successfully quit smoking for six months compared to those who received printed information alone. Across both countries, 41.7% of patients using the mHealth text service achieved six-month smoking abstinence, compared to 15.3% in the standard care group. Importantly, patients receiving text messages also had a significantly lower mortality rate (3.5%) than those in the usual care group (7.5%).
Professor Rumana Huque noted that mobile phone messaging is a low-cost and effective strategy to support tobacco cessation among TB patients. She emphasized that the Government of Bangladesh could consider integrating text-based tobacco cessation support into the national TB control programme.
Professor Siddiqi explained, “We know that people who quit smoking recover from TB faster, so we tested whether sending encouraging and supportive text messages could help patients quit more quickly than the usual written advice.”
He further added, “The study shows that this approach not only helps prevent other tobacco-related conditions such as cancer and heart disease, but also saves lives in the short term by reducing TB-related deaths. This method is both practical and especially valuable in resource-limited settings.”
The study strongly supports the integration of mobile-based counseling into routine TB and respiratory care, highlighting mHealth as an effective and scalable solution for improving health outcomes among TB patients who smoke.
