Short message service reminder as a smoking-prevention media for junior high school students in Pematangsiantar City

Purpose:  This study aims to analyze the influence of short message service reminders on knowledge of junior high school students who smoked. Method: The study used a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and posttest. The population was all junior high school students who smoked, and 85 of them were used as the samples. The data were analyzed by using the Wilcoxon statistics test. Results: Short message service reminders increased the knowledge scores of junior high school students who smoked from 1.48 to 2.36 and it was statistically significant (p-value=0.0001). Conclusion: Headmasters should provide continuous and sustained short message service reminders in their health promotion programs in their school institutions.