Frontiers in Public Health (Oct 2015)
Enhancing engagement with a digital intervention using email and text message prompts: a usability study
Abstract
Introduction Digital interventions (DIs) provide effective and potentially cost-effective models for improving health behaviour outcomes as they deliver health information and services that are widely disseminated, confidential, and can be tailored to needs of the individual user. DIs have been used successfully for different health behaviour such as smoking cessation and increasing physical activity. Studies have shown that their effectiveness is positively correlated with the users’ level of engagement and it has been suggested that engagement can be enhanced through the use of prompts, either via emails or text messages. A recent systematic review of engagement prompts has concluded that they have a small to medium effect on engagement. This effect might be increased if characteristics of effective prompts, for example content and delivery mode, are explored further in other studies. Aim To identify the content and delivery mode of prompts that can enhance engagement with a digital intervention. Method This is usability mixed methods study. Usage data (i.e. user visits) were extracted from a DI targeting self-management of type 2 diabetes and using email and text message prompts to engage users with the DI. Usage data was analysed descriptively to identify email and text message prompts associated with higher and lower levels of engagement with the DI. These prompts were then analysed qualitatively by conducting think aloud interviews with users to find out what content was engaging or disengaging. Preliminary Results: Analysis in progress but preliminary results include finding a significant association between receiving email prompts and visiting a DI, while text message prompts appear not to have an effect on visits to the DI. Think aloud interviews were done with 5 users who preferred prompts that include news and updates. Conclusion Findings will inform health behaviour researchers and DI providers about the optimal content of prompt that can lead to enhanced engagement with DIs. Findings will also be used to test the effectiveness of different prompt content and delivery mode on engagement in a randomised controlled study.
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