Government to help quit smoking through text messages

In a bid to quit tobacco easier, the government on Friday launched M-Cessation facility which reaches out to those who want to quit tobacco through text messages on mobile phones. Tobacco kills almost one million people in the country every year.

Launched as part of government’s Digital India programme, the mobile services — “Kilkari, Mobile Academy, mCessation and TB Missed Call initiative” — are aimed at preventing and managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are responsible for nearly 60 per cent of overall mortality in India.

Asserting that these four mobile health services will be a “game changer” in health communication, Union health minister J.P. Nadda, after launching the services, said they will enhance access, make services cost-effective and the systems more robust. “We are on our way to realise the vision of our Prime Minister by going digital,” he added.

According to the statement by the ministry, Mobile tobacco cessation programme based on the joint WHO ITU initiative — Be Healthy Be Mobile built from best practices in several countries — was aimed at reaching out to those willing to quit tobacco use.

According to the reports, India is the second largest consumer of tobacco in the world. As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, (GATS India 2010), nearly 35 per cent of adults in India (15 years and above) comprising 275 million people, consume tobacco in some form or the other.

“When offered along with traditional services, mCessation has been found to be cost-effective in comparison to traditional options for cessation support. This is first time in the world that such a two-way service is being provided as part of any mHealth initiative,” it said.

Tobacco kills almost one million people in India every year (more than combined deaths from HIV, TB and malaria), besides being responsible for high economic cost resulting from treatment of diseases caused by tobacco use, the ministry statement said. In India, the most prevalent form of tobacco usage is smokeless tobacco, followed by bidi and cigarette smoking. Almost 206 million adults, 25.9 per cent of men and 18.4 per cent women consume smokeless tobacco in the country.