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Health care-related apps, texting may help improve youth health outcomes
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Parents and caregivers may be able to encourage positive health behaviors and improve overall health outcomes for children through the use of mobile health interventions, including text messaging and smartphone applications, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Mobile phones are increasingly used by health professionals as a platform to deploy interventions to elicit health behavior change and improve outcomes,” David A. Fedele, PhD, from the department of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and colleagues wrote. “On an average day, adolescents spend over 2.5 hours using a smartphone, with their device always within close proximity. The ubiquitous nature of mobile phones, coupled with recent technological advances, has given rise to a rapid proliferation in mobile health interventions that use mobile devices to target a range of health promotion and disease management foci.”
To investigate the effectiveness of mobile health interventions on youth health outcomes, researchers collected studies published up to November 2016 concerning those under the age of 18. Studies were made available through various online databases.
Of the final sample of collected literature, which included 37 studies and 29,822 participants, the average age for child involvement in mobile health interventions was 11.35, with girls encompassing 53.16% of the participants. Although race and ethnicity data were limited (37.84% of studies provided this demographic information), 43% of participants were Hispanic/Latino, 14.4% were black and 3.05% were white. A total of 38.77% identified as another ethnicity, did not know their ethnicity, or did not state it.
Further moderator analyses indicated that when a caregiver was involved with mobile health interventions, behavior changed to a greater degree than with youth-focused interventions. Other factors that affected youth health outcomes included a combination of individual, family, community and health care domains. The researchers also noted that nine of the 16 included studies were focused on interventions involving those 5 years of age or younger and their caregivers, and that 68.75% of studies were focused on immunization uptake.
“The take-home message is that a smartphone can help a child be healthier across a number of health care behaviors, like making sure they get vaccines or eat a healthy diet,” researcher Christopher Cushing, PhD, assistant professor of clinical child psychology at the University of Kansas, said in a press release. “We have some idea that a smartphone and messaging can be a good way to go, but we also have a long way to go to optimize this kind of intervention.” — by Katherine Bortz
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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