The study team will develop and assess the feasibility and acceptability of a social
media-based text messaging smoking cessation intervention targeting Chinese immigrant smokers
in New York City (NYC). For Aim 1, the study team will develop a message library for the
WeChat Quit Coach smoking cessation program and conduct in-depth interviews with 20 Chinese
immigrant smokers in person to assess content relevance. For Aim 2, a two-arm, open-labeled,
pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to test the feasibility and
acceptability of the WeChat Quit Coach intervention among 50 Chinese immigrant smokers.
Participants will be randomized to intervention (n=25) or control group (n=25). Participants
in the intervention group will receive a 6-week WeChat Quit Coach intervention through WeChat
private group. Participants in the control group will receive a weekly 1-item WeChat text
assessment on smoking status for 6 weeks. All the 50 participants will be offered a 4-week
supple of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patches and lozenge. Participants will complete
a baseline in-person survey at enrollment and a 6-week follow-up phone survey immediately
after the intervention. Biochemical test (exhaled carbon monoxide test) will be conducted to
confirm abstinence among those who report no smoking in past 7-day at 6-week follow-up
survey. Post-test in-depth interviews will be conducted with 15 participants in person from
the intervention group to obtain more information about the usability and perceptions about
the WeChat Quit Coach program.