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Published on: February 3, 2022
Texting for health: the use of participatory methods to develop healthy lifestyle messages for teens
Melanie Hingle1, Mimi Nichter, Melanie Medeiros
1Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. hinglem@u.arizona.edu
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.
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