Introduction
deaths, death, functional disabilities
Tobacco use is still a major public health problem worldwide. The most common type of tobacco use is cigarette smoking, which is one of the leading preventable causes of death, responsible for more than 600 million deaths globally every year. Available data suggest that tobacco users lose 15 years of life and live with functional disabilities. Therefore, helping people stop using tobacco is the most cost–effective public health intervention.Smoking cessation services are a critical part of the intervention. However, providing universal smoking cessation support can be a challenge for health services in most low- and middle-income countries, as it requires sufficient resources.Many studies have shown that mobile phones have the potential to provide smoking cessation support. One previous randomized trial published in Although mobile phone-based tobacco cessation initiatives have generated considerable enthusiasm,To help fill the evidence gap, we conducted a randomized, controlled trial of a personalized mobile phone-based smoking cessation intervention in China. We aimed to assess why such an intervention is effective and to provide an analysis framework to explore the reasons behind the quitting rate. The study extends the previous research in two ways. First, the intervention used personalized text messages in a country with a limited tobacco control policy. Second, we go beyond simply determining the quitting rate to study the psychological determinants of successful quitting and quitting behaviours.