text4baby

Description:

text4baby is a mobile phone intervention available for free to pregnant women and new mothers in the USA. You can register on the website or via text message and will be asked to provide your due date. You can select to receive messages in either English or Spanish and will receive 3 educational text messages per week throughout your pregnancy and until your baby is 1 year old. The messages are designed to keep you informed on ways to improve your health and your baby's health and cover a range of topics, including: health care utilisation, immunisations, avoiding smoking and improving nutrition.

Service URL:

http://www.text4baby.org/

Agency Responsible:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition and Emory University .

Mobile Platform:

Other.

Details

Format:

Text/Video Messaging System.

Intervention Type:

Educational (primarily educational material or psychoeducation).

Course Structure:

Structured Course.

Course Length:

Long (more than 5 modules). You receive 3 text messages per week throughout your pregnancy and until the baby is 1 year old

Support Option:

Automated only.

Target Audience

Primary Category:

Physical Health. Prenatal and postpartum care

Target Audience:

Adult.

Languages:

English and Spanish.

Access

Mobile platforms:

Other:

Multi-platform. Sign up via the website

Fee:

Free. Available for free to USA residents with a mobile phone service provided by one of the participating mobile operators

Access:

Open: With registration.

Contact Details:

through an online form: http://www.text4baby.org/index.php/contact-us

Research evidence

Research Trials:

0

Research RCTs:

0

Outcome Summary:

No research evidence on the effectiveness of text4baby is currently available. However, evaluation studies are planned and are in progress - and details are provided in the papers cited below.

Recommended rating, reviewer 1:

Recommended rating, reviewer 2:

Read more about Beacon's Smiley Rating System.

Research paper citations

Additional references:
Evans, W.D, Abroms, L.C., Poropatich, R., Nielsen, P. E., Wallace, J. L. (2012) Mobile health evaluation methods: The Text4baby case study. Journal of Health Communication, 17 (Suppl 1): 22-29

Hoff, A.R.K. and Martínez, K.M. (2011) A Localized text4baby Service San Diego Evaluation Results-Phase 1. Poster Presentation at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting on November 1, 2011.