SMS Messages Help People Build Health Habits
If you’re sending motivating messages to clients via cell phone short-message service (SMS), keep it up. A research review of studies, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2009; 36 [2], 165–73), noted that SMS-delivered interventions have positive short-term behavioral results.
Researchers from the School
of Psychology at the University of Queensland, in Australia, found 14 studies that had evaluated SMS
interventions and were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. All but one found that the intervention had a positive effect on behavior change.
The SMS messaging programs in these studies successfully helped people quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more or successfully manage diabetes. The benefits of this type of communication include the fact that
it has a wide reach, can be individually tailored, and can be delivered and
received instantaneously.
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA
Shirley Eichenberger-Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
