250066 Using SMS to automate data collection and deliver health promotion messages: The Be Fit with Friends (BFF) solution

Monday, October 31, 2011: 8:30 AM

David Akopian , Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Univesity of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Varun Bendone Jayaram , Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Lakshmipathi Aaleswara , Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Deborah Parra Medina , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Cynthia Mojica, PhD, MPH , Institute for Health Promotion Research, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Laura Esparza, MS, CHES , Institute for Health Promotion Research, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
The explosive growth of mobile phones as a potentially powerful health communications tool has attracted the attention of public health practitioners. Mobile phones are appealing because they are personal, portable, connected, and ”smart.” Use of mobile technology for health care, known as mobile health (mHealth), has been used for remote patient monitoring, information dissemination and behavior change (e.g., smoking cessation). Although mobile phone-based health monitoring will be a top five consumer mobile application in 2012, the fragmented cell phone market utilizing various mobile networks, communication protocols, operating systems, and phone types/features presents challenges to creating advanced health applications. Therefore, text-messaging (Short Message Service or “SMS”) offers a simple low-cost option to reach large audiences. Be Fit with Friends (BFF), a physical activity intervention among girls 11-14 years uses SMS to disseminate health and physical activity information, provide motivational messages and event reminders, and gather evaluation data and program feedback. We developed a new reconfigurable and automated messaging system to accomplish these communication goals. This messaging system contains client accounts; capability to create/remove client “attributes” (e.g., age, gender); “grouping” logic to define various cohorts (e.g., intervention/control, stage of change) for comparative analysis or group-specific broadcast messaging; “polling” capability to collect client responses, as well as advanced message history tracking and message scheduling to determine dose/exposure. The messaging system described in this presentation is being tested with 30 Hispanic girls participating in BFF. Sharing the BFF technological solution will assist other public health practitioners interested in utilizing SMS to improve health behavior.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Design ‘Be Fit with Friends (BFF) messaging solution - using SMS to automate data collection and deliver health promotion messages.

Keywords: Health Information Systems, Health Disparities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the prinicpal investigator for the research described in this presentation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.