Simply sending children with asthma a text message each day asking about their symptoms and providing knowledge about their condition can lead to improved health outcomes.

 

In a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, patients who were asked questions about their symptoms and provided information about asthma via SMS text messages showed improved pulmonary function and a better understanding of their condition within four months, compared to other groups.

“It appears that text messages acted as an implicit reminder for patients to take their medicine and by the end of the study, the kids were more in tune with their illness,” said study leader Rosa Arriaga, senior research scientist in the College of Computing’s School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech.

It is also a replication study of an SMS health intervention for pediatric asthma patients originally published in early 2012 in the Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGHIT International Health Informatics Symposium.

The results of the research hold promise for the future of mHealth studies, a trend based on the idea that mobile devices can be used to improve health and wellness.

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic respiratory disorder in the U.S., affecting about 17.3 million individuals, including more than 5 million children. Medication is the main way patients manage symptoms, but research shows less than 30 percent of teens use their inhalers regularly.

Texting, on the other hand, is something teens do regularly and enjoy. Nearly 75 percent of American teens have mobile devices. Georgia Tech researchers were interested in seeing if this ubiquitous, easy-to-use technology could help young patients manage their asthma.

In both studies, the researchers randomly assigned 30 asthmatic children from a private pediatric pulmonology clinic in Atlanta into three groups – a control group that did not receive any SMS messages; a group that received text messages on alternate days and a group that received texts every day. The children were between 10 and 17 years old, owned a mobile phone and could read at least at a fifth grade level.

Over four months, the intervention groups received and responded to SMS messages 87 percent of the time, and the average response time was within 22 minutes. After the study, the research team analyzed patients who had follow-up visits with their physician and found that sending at least one text message a day, whether it was a question about symptoms or about asthma in general, improved clinical outcomes.

“The results indicate that both awareness and knowledge are crucial to individuals engaging in proactive behavior to improve their condition,” Arriaga said.

 

Source Newsroom: Georgia Institute of Technology