# mHealth Messaging to Motivate Quitline Use and Quitting (M2Q2): RCT in rural Vietnam

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER · 2021 · $367,168

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
We propose mHealth Messaging to Motivate Quitline Use and Quitting (M2Q2), a collaborative
research project for a mobile health intervention designed to motivate smoking cessation and
encourage access to counseling, and targeted to men and women smokers in Vietnam's Red
River Delta region, a largely rural area. Cigarette smoking is the number one preventable cause
of morbidity and mortality, and tobacco-related deaths are predicted to increase worldwide,
particularly in low and middle-income countries. In Vietnam, currently over 50% of men (and
2% of women) smoke combustible cigarette products. Per the World Health Organization
(WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, Vietnam has implemented several
initiatives to support tobacco cessation, including the initiation of quitlines. However, these
quitlines are underused; over the past 6 months, a quitline in North Vietnam was called only
about 25 times per day, a fraction of the smokers in the region. Our goal in this proposal is to
increase use of the quitline, increasing access to counseling services, nicotine replacement
therapy, with the goal of promoting cessation among current tobacco users. In prior work, we
have leveraged automated messaging technology to engage patients in public health smoking
cessation interventions, using email and text messages to encourage patients to seek
counseling services, and to send motivational messages to smokers encouraging them to quit.
Based on this work, we have demonstrated that clinics are willing to refer patients to a
messaging system, as it requires minimal time within the busy clinical encounter. Further, we
have found that motivational messages written by smokers for other smokers out-perform
messages purely written by experts in tobacco control. Combining the strength of automated
mobile health with cultural adaptations written by Vietnamese smokers for other Vietnamese
smokers, and the counseling services of quitlines, we propose the following Specific Aims: Aim
1: In collaboration with the Institute of Population, Health, and Development (PHAD) in Hanoi
Vietnam, we will adapt our current, effective texting system to Vietnam. The texting system will:
1) Motivate smokers to quit smoking, using tailored messages adapted to be culturally relevant,
and 2) Encourage smokers to accept counseling services from the quitline, and take advantage
of no-cost NRT that will be provided by the quitline to those willing to quit. Aim 2: Engage with
the Bach Mai quitline, providing additional training in tobacco cessation counseling for those
ready to quit, and motivational interventions for those not yet ready to quit. Aim 3: In a
randomized trial (N = 600 men and women smokers in the Red River Delta), evaluate the
impact of the texting system on access to the quitline, use of nicotine replacement therapy,
increase in self-efficacy, and six-month biochemically verified smoking cessation. Our primary
hypothesis is that smokers in the ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10142557
- **Project number:** 5R01TW010647-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Rajani Sadasivam
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $367,168
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-22 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10142557

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10142557, mHealth Messaging to Motivate Quitline Use and Quitting (M2Q2): RCT in rural Vietnam (5R01TW010647-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10142557. Licensed CC0.

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