Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Nov 16, 2017
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 17, 2017 - Mar 15, 2018
Date Accepted: Nov 24, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Using Mobile Technology to Improve Bone-Related Lifestyle Risk Factors in Young Women With Low Bone Mineral Density: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial
Background:
Poor bone health in adolescent and young adult females is a growing concern. Given the widespread use of mobile phones in this population, mobile health (mHealth) interventions may help improve health behaviors related to bone health in young women.
Objective:
The goal of the study was to determine the acceptability and feasibility of an mHealth intervention called Tap4Bone in improving health behaviors associated with the risk of osteoporosis in young women.
Methods:
The Tap4Bone mHealth intervention comprised the use of mobile phone apps, short messaging service (text messaging), and Web emails to encourage health behavior changes. The education group received osteoporosis prevention education leaflets. Changes in the bone health–related behaviors exercise, smoking, and calcium intake were assessed. User experiences and acceptance of the app were collected through focus group interviews.
Results:
A total of 35 (22 completed, mean age 23.1 [SD 1.8] years) were randomized to either the mobile phone (intervention n=18) or education (control n=17) group. Although there were trends toward improvement in calcium intake, sports activity, and smoking behaviors in the mHealth intervention group compared to the education group, these were not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
The Tap4Bone mHealth intervention was shown to be acceptable and feasible in subsets of the participants. The intervention should be improved upon using participant feedback to improve functionality. Findings from this study may aid in the development and modification of health care apps to reduce participant attrition.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.