Using text messaging to assess adolescents' health information needs: an ecological momentary assessment.
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Date
2013-03-07
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Use of mobile technology has made a huge impact on communication access and information resource delivery to adolescents Mobile technology is frequently used by adolescents OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to understand the health information needs of adolescents in the context of their everyday lives and to assess how they meet their information needs METHODS We gave 60 adolescents smartphones with unlimited text messaging and data for 30 days Each smartphone had applications related to asthma obesity human immunodeficiency virus and diet preinstalled on the phone We sent text messages 3 times per week and asked the following questions 1 What questions did you have about your health today 2 Where did you look for an answer mobile device mobile application online friend book or parent 3 Was your question answered and how 4 Anything else RESULTS Our participants ranged from 13 18 years of age 37 62 participants were male and 22 37 were female Of the 60 participants 71 42 60 participants identified themselves as Hispanic and 77 46 60 were frequent users of mobile devices We had a 90 1935 2150 response rate to our text messages Participants sent a total of 1935 text messages in response to the ecological momentary assessment questions Adolescents sent a total of 421 text messages related to a health information needs and 516 text messages related to the source of information to the answers of their questions which were related to parents friends online mobile apps teachers or coaches CONCLUSIONS Text messaging technology is a useful tool for assessing adolescents health behavior in real time Adolescents are willing to use text messaging to report their health information Findings from this study contribute to the evidence base on addressing the health information needs of adolescents In particular attention should be paid to issues related to diet and exercise These findings may be the harbinger for future obesity prevention programs for adolescents