Text Messaging as a Tool for Behavior Change in Disease Prevention and Management

Mobile phone text messaging is a potentially powerful tool for behavior change because it is widely available, inexpensive, and instant. This systematic review provides an overview of behavior change interventions for disease management and prevention delivered through text messaging. Evidence on behavior change and clinical outcomes was compiled from randomized or quasi-experimental controlled trials of text message interventions published in peer-reviewed journals by June 2009. Only those interventions using text message as the primary mode of communication were included. Study quality was assessed by using a standardized measure. Seventeen articles representing 12 studies (5 disease prevention and 7 disease…

• YU
  Yale University
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Award: T32 MH020031
• NI
  National Institute of Mental Health

  Award: T32 MH020031