Physical Activity Text Messaging Interventions in Adults: A Systematic Review

Abstract

To date, using text messaging as a method to promote physical activity has only been studied by a small group of researchers. Current physical activity text messaging literature is characterized by small sample sizes, heterogeneous but positive effect sizes, and a lack of specificity as to the development of the text messages used in these studies. Further research in this area is imperative to facilitate the expansion of mobile technology to promote physical activity.

Cell phone–based health education messaging improves health literacy

“…[29][30][31][32][33][34] SMS was more effective than pamphlets in improving knowledge, attitude, and practices, especially in promoting physical activity. 35 In the present study, we also found that SMSdelivered interventions had positive short-term behavioral outcomes.…”

A Systematic Review of Literature Reporting on Studies Analysing Technologies for Ageing in Place to Support Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Physical Activity (Fry and Neff, 2009;Kennedy et al, 2012;Blackman et al 2013;Geraedts et al, 2013;Buchholz et al, 2013;Foster et al, 2013;Bort-Roig et al, 2014;Mateo et al, 2015;Bert et al, 2014;Matthews et al, 2016;Beishuizen et al, 2016) Nutrition and Weight Management (Fry & Neff, 2009;Ngo et al, 2009;Kelders et al, 2011;Lieffers and Hanning, 2012;Vegting et al, 2014;Mateo et al, 2015;Laranjo et al, 2014;Bardus et al, 2015;Bert et al, 2014) Health Education (Fox, 2009;Kennedy et al, 2012;Bolle et al, 2015;Buhi et al 2013;Moorhead et al, 2013;Laranjo et al, 2014;Bert et al, 2014;Shingleton and Palfai, 2016 …”

“…Therefore, there is an extensive body of research on technological solutions to promote home-based physical activity interventions, since remote interventions removes the barrier of transportation and promotes the integration of physical activity into daily life (Geraedts et al, 2013). Eleven of the included reviews consider the promotion of physical activity among the analysed behaviour change interventions (Fry and Neff, 2009;Kennedy et al, 2012;Blackman et al 2013;Geraedts et al, 2013;Buchholz et al, 2013;Foster et al, 2013;Bort-Roig et al, 2014;Mateo et al, 2015;Bert et al, 2014;Matthews et al, 2016;Beishuizen et al, 2016).…”

“…• General-purpose information technologies, including mobile communications (Fry and Neff, 2009;Bolle et al, 2015;Blackman et al 2013;Geraedts et al, 2013;Buchholz, Wilbur, Ingram and Fogg, 2013;Foster et al, 2013;Buhi et al 2013;Chen and Schulz, 2016), messaging (e.g. mail or chat) (Foster et al, 2013), (Kennedy et al, 2012;Hawley-Hague et al, 2014).…”

Understanding and influencing the maintenance of physical activity and dietary behaviour change in breast cancer survivors

“…However, extended contact interventions delivered via face-to-face and telephone can be costly and time consuming [16,17], while web-based delivery has been associated with poor participant retention and engagement [18,19]. Mobile phone text messaging may be an ideal extended contact intervention delivery modality due to its cost-effectiveness and ability to provide highly tailored support to participants in 'real-time' [20,21]. Emerging evidence supports the feasibility and acceptability [22] and efficacy [23,24] of providing text message-delivered extended contact interventions to promote the maintenance of weight loss.…”