Feasibility and acceptability of SMS text messaging in a prostate cancer educational intervention for African American men.
African Americans' greater access to mobile phones makes short messaging service technology a promising complement to health promotion interventions. Short messaging service text messages were added to the Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training project, a men's health intervention for African American men. We report on the feasibility and acceptability of the use of short messaging service text messages in the intervention. Short messaging service text messages served as (1) workshop reminders; (2) post-workshop message reinforcement; (3) spiritual/motivational messages; and (4) participant retention. At workshop 4, over 65 percent of participants wished to continue receiving the messages. While there was an increase in recall over time, more than one-third of the participants did not recall receiving the 53 text messages. However, recall was considerably greater among men who attended the Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training workshops. Overall, the inclusion of text messages in health promotion interventions targeting mature African American men was found to be feasible and acceptable.
University of Maryland, USA daisyle@umd.edu.|Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA daisyle@umd.edu.|Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA daisyle@umd.edu.|Westat, USA daisyle@umd.edu.
Daisy
D
Le
University of Maryland, USA.|Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA.|Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA.|Westat, USA.
Cheryl L
CL
Holt
University of Maryland, USA.|Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA.|Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA.|Westat, USA.
Darlene R
DR
Saunders
University of Maryland, USA.|Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA.|Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA.|Westat, USA.
Min Qi
MQ
Wang
University of Maryland, USA.
Annie
A
Coriolan
University of Maryland, USA.|Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA.|Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA.|Westat, USA.
Alma D
AD
Savoy
Community Ministry of Prince George's County, USA.
Jimmie L
JL
Slade
Access to Wholistic and Productive Living Institute, Inc., USA.
Bettye
B
Muwwakkil
Westat, USA.
Nancy L
NL
Atkinson
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D000368:Aged; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000295:instrumentation*
African American men; SMS text messaging; church-based health promotion; health information technology; prostate cancer disparities