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Personalized Coaching via Texting for Behavior Change to Understand a Healthy Lifestyle Intervention in a
Charlotte Bäccman1, Linda Bergkvist1, Erik Wästlund1
1Service Research Center (CTF), Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden.
JMIR Formative Research
|November 15, 2023
Summary
Personalized SMS coaching effectively supports behavior change in adults by enhancing capabilities and opportunities. This digital health intervention strengthens the client-consultant relationship, proving valuable for healthy lifestyle adjustments.
Area of Science:
- Digital health interventions
- Behavior change science
- Health psychology
Background:
- Personalized SMS coaching offers a scalable and affordable approach to promoting healthy lifestyle changes.
- SMS (texting) is widely accessible in Sweden, making it a practical tool for health interventions.
- Previous research indicates personalized SMS coaching shows promise in supporting behavior modification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of highly personalized SMS coaching for behavior change.
- To apply the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) model to understand intervention effects.
- To investigate outcomes in physically inactive adults within a Swedish nonprofit fitness organization.
Main Methods:
- Mixed methods design utilizing a within-subjects comparison (clients as their own controls).
- Involved 28 clients and 12 fitness consultants.
- Collected quantitative data (baseline vs. post-intervention), qualitative interview data from consultants, and analyzed pseudonymized text message conversations.
Main Results:
- Quantitative analysis revealed significant improvements in clients' capabilities (Cohen d=0.50), opportunities (Cohen d=0.43), and relationship with fitness consultants (Cohen d=0.51) post-intervention.
- Qualitative findings highlighted that personalized texts enhanced existing methods by increasing continuity and flexibility.
- The evolving client-consultant relationship during the intervention was identified as a key motivational factor.
Conclusions:
- Personalized SMS coaching is an effective strategy for facilitating healthy behavior changes.
- The human connection element within digital health interventions warrants further investigation for maximizing effectiveness.
- This study underscores the potential of digital tools to foster significant improvements in health behaviors.
Keywords:
COM-BCapability, Opportunity, Motivation–Behaviorbehavior changedigital health interventionmixed methods designmobile phonepersonalized SMS coachingphysical activityMore Related Videos
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