Magee Matthew, Isakov Alex, Paradise Helen Tang, Sullivan Patrick
Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Am J Disaster Med. 2011 Nov-Dec;6(6):379-85. doi: 10.5055/ajdm.2011.0076.
Text messages are useful for timely communication during public health emergencies and for transmitting health data in infrastructure-limited settings. Little is known about the feasibility of two-way short message service (SMS) communication to collect public health preparedness and surveillance data. The authors aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using two-way SMS texts to collect situational assessment (SA) data in simulated disaster events during a university-based pilot study.
Eligible participants included university students with a mobile phone and messaging plan. Enrollment began in September 2009, and was open until the end of the study in May 2010. Participants attended a training session and provided demographic and phone use information using a baseline survey. Participants responded to SMS SAs that were sent directly to their phones throughout the study period. Frequency, completeness, and time to reporting were recorded for each procedure using an online commercial software package.
Sixty-three participants enrolled; median age was 25 years, most were female (74.6 percent), lived off campus (76.2 percent), and were graduate students (76.2 percent). Most participants had a family/joint mobile phone account (73.0 percent) with unlimited messaging (60.3 percent). The median daily number of texts sent and received was 8 and 9, respectively. During five SAs, 194 (76.7 percent) of 253 prompted text surveys were completed. Nearly 60 percent of surveys were completed within 20 minutes of text deployment.
Using two-way SMS communication for surveillance and reporting was feasible among a group of motivated students. Similar methods may provide timely data during public health critical events.
短信在突发公共卫生事件期间的及时沟通以及在基础设施有限的环境中传输健康数据方面很有用。关于使用双向短消息服务（SMS）通信来收集公共卫生应急准备和监测数据的可行性，我们知之甚少。作者旨在通过一项基于大学的试点研究，确定在模拟灾难事件中使用双向短信文本收集态势评估（SA）数据的可行性和可接受性。
符合条件的参与者包括拥有手机和短信套餐的大学生。招募工作于2009年9月开始，一直持续到2010年5月研究结束。参与者参加了一次培训课程，并通过基线调查提供了人口统计学和手机使用信息。在整个研究期间，参与者对直接发送到他们手机上的短信SA进行回复。使用在线商业软件包记录每个程序的频率、完整性和报告时间。
63名参与者报名；中位年龄为25岁，大多数为女性（74.6%），住在校外（76.2%），且为研究生（76.2%）。大多数参与者拥有家庭/联名手机账户（73.0%），且短信无限制（60.3%）。每天发送和接收短信的中位数分别为8条和9条。在五次SA中，253条提示性短信调查中有194条（76.7%）完成。近60%的调查在短信发送后20分钟内完成。
在一群积极主动的学生中，使用双向短信通信进行监测和报告是可行的。类似方法可能在突发公共卫生事件期间提供及时的数据。
