Prompting Healthy Behavior via Text Messaging in Adolescents and Young Adults

Abstract

Unhealthy and risky behaviors among adolescents and young adults, such as poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, smoking, and sexual practices, can lead to long-term negative health outcomes. Individuals with chronic diseases in these age groups are also more prone to nonadherence in the management of their diseases. Positively influencing the voluntary aspect of unhealthy behaviors in adolescents and young adults is an important public health topic. Recent research on cell phone text messaging has emerged as a potentially efficient, real-time intervention portal to prompt healthy behaviors in these populations. The purpose of this article is to review the current state of research evaluating the effectiveness of text messaging as a health intervention for adolescents and young adults.