Use of text messaging for monitoring sugar-sweetened beverages, physical activity, and screen time in children: a pilot study.
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Date
2008-11-05
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE To examine acceptability attrition adherence and preliminary efficacy of mobile phone short message service SMS text messaging for monitoring healthful behaviors in children DESIGN All randomized children received a brief psychoeducational intervention They then either monitored target behaviors via SMS with feedback or via paper diaries PD or participated in a no monitoring control C for 8 weeks SETTING University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill PARTICIPANTS Fifty eight children age 5 13 and parents participated 31 completed SMS 13 18 PD 7 18 C 11 22 INTERVENTION Children and parents participated in a total of 3 group education sessions 1 session weekly for 3 weeks to encourage increasing physical activity and decreasing screen time and sugar sweetened beverage consumption MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Treatment acceptability attrition and adherence to self monitoring ANALYSIS Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests were used to analyze differences across time and group RESULTS Children in SMS had somewhat lower attrition 28 than both PD 61 and C 50 and significantly greater adherence to self monitoring than PD 43 vs 19 P Under 02 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Short message service may be a useful tool for self monitoring healthful behaviors in children although the efficacy of this approach needs further study Implications suggest that novel technologies may play a role in improving health
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Keywords
Child, Social support network, Acceptability, Loss to follow up, Pilot, Efficacy, Randomized, Experimental, Nutrition, Obesity, Child Health, Preventive, Health education or promotion, Surveillance, Data collection and reporting, SMS, Text