Designing and validation of text messages for m-Health intervention for tobacco cessation and management

Puneet Chahar, Vikrant R Mohanty, YB Aswini

Indian Journal of Cancer 2018 55(4):390-393

BACKGROUND: Tobacco is a growing epidemic and tobacco-related death results in health consequences and lost economic opportunities. Tobacco cessation efforts mandate the use of multiple strategies to bring about behaviour change. AIM: To develop and validate health promotive text messages using transtheoretical model and prospect theory for behaviour change. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The present observational study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital, Delhi among patients reporting at Tobacco Cessation Centre (TCC). METHODS: The study was divided into two phases: first involved development of text messages in local language (Hindi) using a sound theoretical basis (TTM and prospect theory) and second phase dealt with validation of the developed text messages by patients and experts in the field of tobacco cessation. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics was obtained using the SPSS version 17. RESULTS: The sample comprised 20 males and 6 females. Average appeal score ranged from 6.1 to 9.6 (54 messages). Forty two messages out of a total of 54 messages were found to be appropriate after validation by the experts. Mean words of the final messages (42 messages) was 24.5 ± 1.3. Two hundred ninety one (90%) out of a total of 324 questionnaires showed adequate understanding of message as assessed by the reviewers. CONCLUSIONS: The current effort developed and validated health promotive text messages package to aid in tobacco cessation. The preventive text messages were grounded in evidence and sound theoretical basis and followed a standard validating procedure leading to satisfactory understanding and appeal in all domains.

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