Go Ad-Free
logoThe People's Perspective on Medicine

Text Messages for a Healthier Lifestyle

Coaching by way of text messages helped people make significant lifestyle changes to improve their health, such as quitting smoking and losing weight.

When a text message arrives on the phone, people pay attention. Perhaps that’s why a study in Australia found that people trying to adopt healthier lifestyle behaviors benefit from getting encouraging text messages.

The Text Message Study:

Researchers recruited 700 people with heart disease; 350 of them were randomly selected to get about 4 text messages every week to help them smoke less, exercise more and eat a better diet. The remaining 350 continued to get their usual care without any text messages.

Text Messages Made a Difference:

After six months, the text recipients had done significantly better at losing weight and lowering cholesterol and blood pressure than the other group. They had also reduced their smoking and increased physical activity.

All of these behaviors can reduce cardiovascular complications and improve survival (and probably quality of life) for people with heart disease. But anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking or drop pounds knows that these simple lifestyle changes are far from easy!

Volunteers in the text message group overwhelmingly found the messages useful and easy to understand.

JAMA, Sept. 22, 2015

Rate this article
star-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-emptystar-fullstar-empty
5- 6 ratings
About the Author
Joe Graedon is a pharmacologist who has dedicated his career to making drug information understandable to consumers. His best-selling book, The People’s Pharmacy, was published in 1976 and led to a syndicated newspaper column, syndicated public radio show and web site. In 2006, Long Island University awarded him an honorary doctorate as “one of the country's leading drug experts for the consumer.”.
Tired of the ads on our website?

Now you can browse our website completely ad-free for just $5 / month. Stay up to date on breaking health news and support our work without the distraction of advertisements.

Browse our website ad-free
Join over 150,000 Subscribers at The People's Pharmacy

We're empowering you to make wise decisions about your own health, by providing you with essential health information about both medical and alternative treatment options.