Improving health is one of those things that many of us would like to do, but is often seen as difficult or unpleasant. Giving up the tasty foods, getting outside and exercising more...these things sound great until it's been a couple days without a cookie and the wind chill's in the negative numbers. But sometimes, even little things can be a help, and the results of a Regence pilot program have shown that just simple text messages can have a positive impact on health, testing out a new text messaging system.
The pilot program in question was focused on two specific subsets of individuals: those who were pregnant, or those who had diabetes. With these two groups in mind, Regence—which is a group of health plans with a reported 2.2 million members to its collective credit—joined up with Krames StayWell to start up a program to send texts to these folks offering simple messages on how best to help manage the various conditions in which said folks operated daily, as well as provide motivation toward following up on the various tips presented. Sounds simple enough, maybe even a bit invasive, but the numbers certainly suggest a welcome program in the making. Using Krames StayWell Text Connection as the method of delivery, 32 percent of the pregnancy targets, and 67 percent of the diabetics, said that the information in the texts provided sufficient help to make “positive changes” in the management of the conditions experienced.
This alone was good enough news for anyone, but the numbers continued to tell a story worth taking note of. Respondents with both conditions reported improvements in knowledge about the conditions involved, though slightly more diabetics boasted improved knowledge. Pregnancy saw nearly a 60 percent boost in respondents reporting greater knowledge, while nearly 67 percent could say likewise in the diabetic camp. This assertion was backed up by knowledge testing, and revealed that the differences between knowledge before and after the text messaging program was “statistically significant.” But even where there wasn't necessarily an increase in knowledge, there was still a perception of value. Nearly 90 percent of the pregnant and nearly 89 percent of the diabetic called the text messages “valuable.”
Krames StayWell's CEO, Trent Sterling, offered up some comment on the pilot program: “Given that almost 90 percent of U.S. adults have mobile phones and 70 percent use them for text messaging, this is an effective and affordable way for our clients to reach their health care consumers. The Regence pilots have demonstrated the effectiveness of using this technology to improve engagement in managing health conditions.”
It's interesting how just a little bit of information at the right place or the right time can make so much difference. Something like this could be very helpful for many users with different health conditions, as long as it's done properly. Put out too many messages too fast and it risks alienating the user, not enough too spread out time-wise makes the messages lose much of the impact and the conditioning effects said messages might have. It's a fine line, but discovering that key mix of message and timing can produce some impressive results, as seems to have been the case here. It's certainly got enough behind it to try it elsewhere, and see how other patients react to such a measure.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
