Consumer engagement through mobile health technology

Background: Louisiana has the highest diabetes mortality rate in the United States (35.5 / 100,000 persons). Six out of ten adults in Greater New Orleans have at least one risk factor for type 2 diabetes. In 2007, the total cost of diabetes for people in Louisiana was $2.4 billion. Forty-two percent (42.6%) of adults with diabetes in Louisiana reported that they had never attended a single diabetes self-management course, hence the need to educate people with easy to use methods. Program background: The Crescent City Beacon Community (New Orleans) developed a robust social marketing campaign to engage at-risk populations in the txt4health campaign. The strategy focused on building public/private partnerships to support programmatic objectives. Main campaign elements included: mass advertising, direct-to-consumer activities, social media, and public relations. A txt4health community advisory board was created to inform and support campaign development and implementation. Evaluation Methods and Results: Formative evaluation techniques were used during the development of the txt4health product, messages and creative materials. Two major aspects of the campaign are being evaluated for future statewide expansion: success of the social marketing campaign to reach target population and effectiveness of mobile health program to activate patients who enroll to make healthy choices regarding their weight, physical activity, and smoking. Conclusions: The results of the txt4health campaign will not only help reach prevention targets in diabetics and people with prediabetes, it will provide valuable lessons learned that can help shape future mobile health campaigns for community behavior change and consumer engagement.