Text messaging proves effective in studies

The popularity of text messaging with today’s youth might help the technology become a new weight-monitoring strategy.

A recent UNC pilot study showed that using text messages as a way to self-monitor one’s weight is more effective for children than using paper journals.

“We know that with weight loss, people generally don’t like to self-monitor and exercise,” said Jennifer Shapiro, assistant professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. “Kids especially don’t like to self-monitor because they think it’s boring and feels like homework.”

Shapiro added that the use of text messaging galvanizes children to self-monitor because it’s more fun and technological than simple paper diaries.

The study, conducted at UNC Hospitals, involved 58 children aged 5 to 13 years old and their parents.

Researchers asked children to monitor steps measured by a pedometer, the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed and number of minutes spent watching television.

After a three-week education session, families reported information via texts to researchers. This part of the study lasted eight weeks.

Even though patients were as young as 5 years old, conductors of the study said children still knew not only how to efficiently text message but also how to assist their parents.

“That was the amazing thing,” said Cynthia Bulik, a co-investigator of the study. “A lot of people were skeptical, but I said ‘I bet you those 5-year-olds will show their parents how to do it.’”

Researchers provided feedback to the children and families along the way, including hundreds of automated text responses that would react to the progress indicated by the messages.

The study included a group that used paper diaries to self-monitor and a no-monitoring control group.

Results of the study showed that 28 percent of the children using text messages dropped out of the study, significantly lower than the 61 percent dropout rate for the group who used paper diaries.

The text messaging group also kept up with the program more closely.

The same study has also been conducted on teenagers with bulimia. Bulik said the study is complete, but the results won’t be submitted for publication for about a week.

But Shapiro said the process isn’t quite ready to be adopted as common practice by doctors because work still needs to be done to ensure the legitimacy of text messages as weight-monitoring tools.

She said there needs to be more studies that include a text-messaging control group that receives no feedback and a larger variety of age groups.

But conductors of the study said they were optimistic that text messaging eventually will become a popular and widespread approach to monitoring weight loss for children.

“I think that slowly, paper and pencil will become outdated,” said Shapiro.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.