TY - JOUR
T1 - Texting for Health
T2 - The Use of Participatory Methods to Develop Healthy Lifestyle Messages for Teens
AU - Hingle, Melanie
AU - Nichter, Mimi
AU - Medeiros, Melanie
AU - Grace, Samantha
N1 - Funding Information:
This project is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition and Obesity Initiative #2009-55215-05187 .
PY - 2013/1
Y1 - 2013/1
N2 - Objective: To develop and test messages and a mobile phone delivery protocol designed to influence the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of adolescents. Design: Nine focus groups, 4 classroom discussions, and an 8-week pilot study exploring message content, format, origin, and message delivery were conducted over 12 months using a multistage, youth-participatory approach. Setting: Youth programs at 11 locations in Arizona. Participants: Recruitment was coordinated through youth educators and leaders. Eligible teens were 12-18 years old and enrolled in youth programs between fall 2009 and 2010. Phenomenon of Interest: Adolescent preferences for messages and delivery of messages. Analysis: Qualitative data analysis procedures to generate themes from field notes. Results: One hundred seventy-seven adolescents participated in focus groups (n = 59), discussions (n = 86), and a pilot study (n = 32). Youth preferred messages with an active voice that referenced teens and recommended specific, achievable behaviors; messages should come from nutrition professionals delivered as a text message, at a frequency of ≤ 2 messages/day. Conclusions and Implications: More than 300 messages and a delivery protocol were successfully developed and tested in partnership with adolescents. Future research should address scalability of texting interventions; explore dose associated with changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; and offer customized message subscription options.
AB - Objective: To develop and test messages and a mobile phone delivery protocol designed to influence the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of adolescents. Design: Nine focus groups, 4 classroom discussions, and an 8-week pilot study exploring message content, format, origin, and message delivery were conducted over 12 months using a multistage, youth-participatory approach. Setting: Youth programs at 11 locations in Arizona. Participants: Recruitment was coordinated through youth educators and leaders. Eligible teens were 12-18 years old and enrolled in youth programs between fall 2009 and 2010. Phenomenon of Interest: Adolescent preferences for messages and delivery of messages. Analysis: Qualitative data analysis procedures to generate themes from field notes. Results: One hundred seventy-seven adolescents participated in focus groups (n = 59), discussions (n = 86), and a pilot study (n = 32). Youth preferred messages with an active voice that referenced teens and recommended specific, achievable behaviors; messages should come from nutrition professionals delivered as a text message, at a frequency of ≤ 2 messages/day. Conclusions and Implications: More than 300 messages and a delivery protocol were successfully developed and tested in partnership with adolescents. Future research should address scalability of texting interventions; explore dose associated with changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; and offer customized message subscription options.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Community-based participatory research
KW - Diet
KW - Health education
KW - Mobile health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872132137&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84872132137&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jneb.2012.05.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jneb.2012.05.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 23103255
AN - SCOPUS:84872132137
SN - 1499-4046
VL - 45
SP - 12
EP - 19
JO - Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
JF - Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
IS - 1
ER -