Sandrick Janice, Tracy Doreen, Eliasson Arn, Roth Ashley, Bartel Jeffrey, Simko Melanie, Bowman Tracy, Harouse-Bell Karen, Kashani Mariam, Vernalis Marina
Coordinated Program in Nutrition and Dietetics, Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA, United States.
Integrative Cardiac Health Project, Department of Medicine, Walter Reed Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD, United States.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2017 May 17;5(5):e67. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.6638.
The college experience is often the first time when young adults live independently and make their own lifestyle choices. These choices affect dietary behaviors, exercise habits, techniques to deal with stress, and decisions on sleep time, all of which direct the trajectory of future health. There is a need for effective strategies that will encourage healthy lifestyle choices in young adults attending college.
This preliminary randomized controlled trial tested the effect of coaching and text messages (short message service, SMS) on self-selected health behaviors in the domains of diet, exercise, stress, and sleep. A second analysis measured the ripple effect of the intervention on health behaviors not specifically selected as a goal by participants.
Full-time students aged 18-30 years were recruited by word of mouth and campuswide advertisements (flyers, posters, mailings, university website) at a small university in western Pennsylvania from January to May 2015. Exclusions included pregnancy, eating disorders, chronic medical diagnoses, and prescription medications other than birth control. Of 60 participants, 30 were randomized to receive a single face-to-face meeting with a health coach to review results of behavioral questionnaires and to set a health behavior goal for the 8-week study period. The face-to-face meeting was followed by SMS text messages designed to encourage achievement of the behavioral goal. A total of 30 control subjects underwent the same health and behavioral assessments at intake and program end but did not receive coaching or SMS text messages.
The texting app showed that 87.31% (2187/2505) of messages were viewed by intervention participants. Furthermore, 28 of the 30 intervention participants and all 30 control participants provided outcome data. Among intervention participants, 22 of 30 (73%) showed improvement in health behavior goal attainment, with the whole group (n=30) showing a mean improvement of 88% (95% CI 39-136). Mean improvement in any behavioral domains was not seen in the control group. Intervention participants also increased their exercise significantly compared with controls, regardless of their self-selected goal category. The increased exercise was paralleled by significantly lower fasting glucose levels.
The health coaching session plus tailored SMS text messages improved self-selected health behaviors with a modest ripple effect to include unselected health behaviors.
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02476604; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02476604 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6qAAryS5t).
大学经历往往是年轻人首次独立生活并做出自己生活方式选择的时候。这些选择会影响饮食行为、运动习惯、应对压力的技巧以及睡眠时间的决定，所有这些都引导着未来健康的轨迹。需要有有效的策略来鼓励上大学的年轻人做出健康的生活方式选择。
这项初步随机对照试验测试了指导和短信（短消息服务，SMS）对饮食、运动、压力和睡眠领域自我选择的健康行为的影响。第二项分析测量了干预对参与者未特别选定为目标的健康行为的连锁反应。
2015年1月至5月，通过口碑和校园范围内的广告（传单、海报、邮件、大学网站）在宾夕法尼亚州西部的一所小型大学招募了18 - 30岁的全日制学生。排除标准包括怀孕、饮食失调、慢性疾病诊断以及除避孕药外的处方药。60名参与者中，30名被随机分配接受与健康教练的单次面对面会议，以审查行为问卷结果并为为期8周的研究期设定健康行为目标。面对面会议之后是旨在鼓励实现行为目标的短信。总共30名对照受试者在入组时和项目结束时接受了相同的健康和行为评估，但未接受指导或短信。
短信应用程序显示，干预组参与者查看了87.31%（2187/2505）的短信。此外，30名干预组参与者中的28名和所有30名对照组参与者提供了结果数据。在干预组参与者中，30名中有22名（73%）在实现健康行为目标方面有所改善，整个组（n = 30）平均改善了88%（95%CI 39 - 136）。对照组在任何行为领域均未观察到平均改善。与对照组相比，干预组参与者的运动也显著增加，无论他们自我选择的目标类别如何。运动增加的同时空腹血糖水平显著降低。
健康指导课程加上量身定制的短信改善了自我选择的健康行为，并对未选定的健康行为产生了适度的连锁反应。
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02476604；https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02476604（由WebCite存档于http://www.webcitation.org/6qAAryS5t）
