Abstract Background and aims Sustained psychosocial support via online social groups may help former tobacco users maintain abstinence. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of participating in a WhatsApp social group for long‐term smoking cessation. Design Two‐arm, open‐labelled, pragmatic, individually randomized controlled trial. Setting All participants are service users of smoking cessation clinics, and all interventions are delivered via mobile phones. Participants Participants included 1008 adult quitters who self‐report no tobacco use in the past 3–30 days. Interventions The intervention group (n = 504) will join a WhatsApp social group to receive standardized and theory‐based reminders of smoking relapse prevention and participate in discussion with other WhatsApp group members using their own mobile phones. All social groups will be led by counselors or specialist nurse practitioners. The control group (n = 504) will receive similar reminders via short messages to their own mobile phones but will not interact with other participants. The intervention duration for both groups is 8 weeks. Both groups will receive a booklet at baseline about how to prevent smoking relapse. Measurements The primary outcome is biochemically validated tobacco abstinence at 12 months after consent. Comments The findings will provide evidence concerning the utility of operating online social group discussion for prevention of smoking relapse and sustaining long‐term abstinence.

中文翻译：

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WhatsApp 在线小组讨论对预防吸烟复吸的有效性：实用随机对照试验方案


摘要 背景和目标 通过在线社交团体提供持续的社会心理支持可能有助于前吸烟者保持戒烟。本研究旨在探讨参加 WhatsApp 社交群组对长期戒烟的有效性。设计双臂、开放标签、务实、单独随机对照试验。设置 所有参与者都是戒烟诊所的服务使用者，所有干预措施均通过手机进行。参与者 参与者包括 1008 名成年戒烟者，他们自我报告在过去 3-30 天内没有使用烟草。干预措施 干预组（n = 504）将加入 WhatsApp 社交群组，接收标准化和基于理论的预防吸烟复吸提醒，并使用自己的手机与其他 WhatsApp 群组成员参与讨论。所有社会团体都将由顾问或专业护士领导。对照组（n = 504）将通过自己的手机短信收到类似的提醒，但不会与其他参与者互动。两组的干预时间均为8周。两组人都会在基线时收到一本关于如何防止复吸的小册子。测量 主要结果是在同意后 12 个月时经过生物化学验证的戒烟情况。评论 该研究结果将提供有关在线社交小组讨论对于预防吸烟复吸和维持长期戒烟的效用的证据。