None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Obesity is one of the greatest health challenges facing today’s adolescents, who are now the largest global population segment (>25%). In Australia, over 30% of adolescents (13-18 years) are overweight or obese. Weight gain during adolescence is related to heart disease in later life. Implementing accessible obesity interventions could save our society $2.1B over the next 10 years. Hence, it is important we develop contemporary, low-cost, and engaging population-based obesity prevention solutions. Presently, Australian adolescents have limited access to age-appropriate obesity prevention services. There is a growing body of evidence indicating text messaging interventions are effective for secondary prevention of heart disease and our team has a successful program of related research. However, there is limited evidence for the role of text messages to engage adolescent populations in obesity prevention behaviours. In our preliminary work, through expert workshops and consumer testing, we have developed a bank of 300 evidence-based text messages that are acceptable and engaging for adolescents. In this randomised controlled trial, we aim to test the effectiveness of this healthy lifestyle text message program (TEXTBITES), with optional health counselling, compared to usual care in improving body mass index and lifestyle outcomes in overweight adolescents. Participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention program or standard care for 6-months. BMI and lifestyle outcomes will be assessed at the completion of the program, 6-months and all participants will be followed up 6-months later (12-months from baseline). There are no foreseen physical or psychological risks associated with participation in this study. For safety purposes, an independent, unblinded researcher will monitor all incoming text messages. This potentially scalable project will inform future practice and community initiatives to promote obesity prevention behaviours for adolescents.
Interventions
TEXTBITES: 6-month intervention consisting of healthy lifestyle text messages and optional telephone health counselling delivered via mobile phone and usual care.
Healthy lifestyle text messages: Semi-personalised text messages will be sent on 4 random days/week (including 1 day/weekend) for 6-months (96 text messages in total) on each of four priority areas for adolescent health, namely, physical activity, nutrition, psychosocial wellbeing, and general behaviours. The text messages will encour
TEXTBITES: 6-month intervention consisting of healthy lifestyle text messages and optional telephone health counselling delivered via mobile phone and usual care. Healthy lifestyle text messages: Semi-personalised text messages will be sent on 4 random days/week (including 1 day/weekend) for 6-months (96 text messages in total) on each of four priority areas for adolescent health, namely, physical activity, nutrition, psychosocial wellbeing, and general behaviours. The text messages will encourage two-way communication and prompt participants to change their behaviours by providing practical tips and strategies. Text messages will be delivered using an existing purpose-built cloud-based delivery system. The system has well-developed systems for managing the text messages and monitoring participant data. This includes safety, privacy and security systems with analytic data and the ability to semi-personalise text message content and frequency. Optional telephone health counselling: Intervention participants will also have opportunity to communicate by telephone with a health counsellor (university qualified allied health professional) up to 6 times over 6-months (once per month). The personalised health counselling calls will last 10-15 minutes and be delivered according to standardized protocol. The university qualified health counsellor will monitor and respond to participants’ request for a call each month either via text message or phone call within 3 working days. Health counselling calls will allow participants to set behavioural goals, discuss barriers and enablers to behaviour change, and their overall progress.
Sponsors
The University of Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
13 Years to 18 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
13 to 18 years inclusive; Overweight (as defined by the International Obesity Task Force as equivalent to adult BMI 25.0-29.9 kg/m2); Own an operational mobile phone, capable of sending and receiving text-messages; Provide written informed consent.
Exclusion criteria
Diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes; Medical condition or psychiatric illness that would not allow the participant to give informed consent and/or would preclude the participant’s ability to comply with the study protocol; History of disordered eating including being diagnosed with, or treated for Anorexia, Nervosa or Anorexia Athletica, Binge Eating Disorder or Bulimia Nervosa; Pregnancy, or planning to become pregnant within the next 12 months; On weight loss medications or any medications known to cause weight gain; Enrolled in an alternative randomised weight management program; Already participating in a text message-based study; Inability of the participant to speak English.
Outcome results
None listed