Tuberculosis (TB) patients who smoke will recover far more quickly if they can quit—and help could come from their mobile phones, according to new research.

As part of the trial, patients were sent encouraging and supportive text messages to see if it would help them to quit smoking more quickly.

The results, published in the JAMA, revealed that nearly three times the number of participants who received text messages quit smoking for six months, compared to participants receiving the standard printed information.