272777 Using Mobile Technology to Communicate Oral Health Information to Pregnant and New Moms

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 : 12:51 PM - 1:08 PM

Lindsay Handelsman, MPH, CHES , Text4baby, National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, Alexandria, VA
Text4baby is a free mobile information service that provides timely health information to women via their cell phones starting in pregnancy and extending through their babies' first year. Women who sign up for the service by texting BABY (or BEBE in Spanish) to 511411 receive free text messages timed to their due date or baby's date of birth. The messages, which are guided by solid science and reviewed by medical and subject matter experts, cover a host of critical maternal and child health issues, including oral health. Oral health messages include information about gum disease in pregnancy, baby's oral hygiene, baby bottle tooth decay, teething, and baby's first dental visit. Results from the first text4baby evaluation indicate that text4baby increases users' health knowledge, facilitates interaction with health providers, improves adherence to appointments and immunizations, and improves their access to health services.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
1) Explain how the text4baby service works and describe its value in communicating oral health messages. 2) Understand mobile health, and the text4baby service in particular as an innovative way to reach moms and moms-to-be with oral health information.

Keywords: Health Communications, Maternal and Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Outreach Coordinator for text4baby.
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.

Back to: 5202.0: Effective Oral Health Communications Across the Lifespan