Dive Brief:
- A study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association show texting intervention with patients at risk of heart disease lead to significant increases in physical activity levels.
- A group of 48 smartphone users between ages 18 and 69 years who are at risk for heart disease were enrolled in a five-week study and provided a fitness tracker. The fitness goal was to walk 10,000 steps per day.
- Participants in the unblinded group that could interface with data and receive texts were automatically sent personalized texts with encouraging messages based on their level of physical activity as recorded by their fitness trackers. They received texts three times a day.
Dive Insight:
The study results showed that those in the unblinded group who received the thrice-daily texts walked an average of 2,334 more steps per day, increased total activity time by 21 minutes per day and aerobic time by 13 minutes per day. Those in the other two groups that did not receive texts maintained baseline time engaged in physical activity. At the end of the study, almost twice as many who received texts walked the 10,000 daily step goal compared to the other groups.
The researchers concluded mHealth facilitates behavioral change but is not a driver of it since the ability to interface with physical activity data didn't lead to improvement without the text message intervention.