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Researchers Use Text Messaging in Scottish Health Study

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Researchers Use Text Messaging in Scottish Health Study

 
December 20, 2013

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By Michelle Amodio,
TMCnet Contributor


Here’s a study that wants to use technology for good.

Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland are looking to gather 700 men aged 25-44 for a study involving binge drinking. While that sounds like it could be dangerous (or fun depending how you look at it), the folks performing the study want to use text messaging to curtail the binge drinking habits of participants.


Those who sign up and have a pattern of binge drinking will receive regular texts over the course of three months, followed up by a phone interview to see how they are doing.

This project is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research (NIHR PHR) Program.

"We are hoping to work with men who have settled into a drinking pattern where they will have consumed more than eight units of alcohol on two occasions in the previous month,” said Prof Iain Crombie, of the Centre for Biomedical Sciences and Public Health at the University of Dundee. "The basic idea is not to preach to them or tell them what they do. Many alcohol interventions are very 'in your face' and we don't see that as the way to go."

Text messaging is the chosen medium for this because, as Crombie notes, evidence suggests that text messaging can be effective, and it is an attractive medium for people today.

The success of text messaging as a way to communicate is apparent, particularly in an era when it seems nearly everyone is armed with some sort of messaging mobile device. Messaging is used for the college student organizing a study group, the partier rounding up her friends, or the couch potato voting for his favorite American Idol. It’s versatile, it’s instant and it does the job.

"As new technology becomes widely adopted we must see if we can use it to come up with better ways of working with people,” said Crombie.

What it all boils down to is that text messaging is quick, easy and effective. Simple questions call for simple answers, which can easily be transmitted through a text message. Using it to help people with safety issues or to curtail bad habits is certainly a unique approach to its use, but nonetheless interesting. 




Edited by Alisen Downey
Text Messaging Homepage





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