Texts For Healthy Teens: A Health Education Program for Adolescents

NCT02809196 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2014-01
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 7,890
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The overall objective is to examine if participating in an SMS-transmitted health educational program targeting a cluster of dietary factors over a period of weeks during the years of adolescence can induce durable changes towards more healthful dietary habits and body weight trajectories. The investigators will examine if impact is reinforced by asking a friend of the participant to also participate; if impact is reinforced by asking the mother of the participant to also participate; and if impact is reinforced when the SMS-transmitted health promotion program is designed to target a specific dietary factor only - decided upon from participants' reporting of their dietary habits at the beginning of the program - rather than to simultaneously target a cluster of dietary issues uniform for all participants.

Conditions

Food Habits

Keywords

Food Habits; Adolescents; Digital Communication; BMI

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change from baseline in an index reflecting overall dietary quality

  Based on reported intake in online questionnaires

  6 months and 18 months after allocation

• Change from baseline in BMI z-score

  Based on reported height and weight in online questionnaires

  6 months and 18 months after allocation

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Change from baseline in intake of sugar sweetened beverages

  6 months and 18 months after allocation

• Change from baseline in intake of fruits and vegetables

  6 months and 18 months after allocation

• Change from baseline in intake of fish

  6 months and 18 months after allocation

Study Arms (9)

1: Tailored, friend and mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Depending on the responses to the online dietary questionnaire, the tailored SMS-based educational programs can be one out of three different programs, focusing on either sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables (F\&V), or fish (FISH). About 40 messages will be distributed over 4 weeks. Friend and mother are invited to participate.

Behavioral: 1: Tailored SMS program implicating friend and mother

2: Standardized, friend and mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The standardized SMS-based educational program includes 121 messages there will be distributed over 12 weeks. Friend and mother are invited to participate.

Behavioral: 2: Standardized SMS program implicating friend and mother

3:Tailored, friend and not mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Depending on the responses to the online dietary questionnaire, the tailored SMS-based educational programs can be one out of three different programs, focusing on either sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables (F\&V), or fish (FISH). About 40 messages will be distributed over 4 weeks. Friend is invited to participate but not mother.

Behavioral: 3: Tailored SMS program implicating friend, not mother

4: Standardized, friend and not mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The standardized SMS-based educational program includes 121 messages there will be distributed over 12 weeks. Friend is invited to participate but not mother.

Behavioral: 4: Standardized SMS program implicating friend, not mother

5:Tailored, mother and not friend

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Depending on the responses to the online dietary questionnaire, the tailored SMS-based educational programs can be one out of three different programs, focusing on either sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables (F\&V), or fish (FISH). About 40 messages will be distributed over 4 weeks. Mother is invited to participate but not friend.

Behavioral: 5: Tailored SMS program implicating mother, not friend

6: Standardized, mother and not friend

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The standardized SMS-based educational program includes 121 messages there will be distributed over 12 weeks. Mother is invited to participate but not friend.

Behavioral: 6: Standardized SMS program implicating mother, not friend

7:Tailored, not friend, not mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Depending on the responses to the online dietary questionnaire, the tailored SMS-based educational programs can be one out of three different programs, focusing on either sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables (F\&V), or fish (FISH). About 40 messages will be distributed over 4 weeks. Neither friend nor mother is invited to participate.

Behavioral: 7: Tailored SMS program not implicating mother or friend

8: Standardized, not friend, not mother

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

The standardized SMS-based educational program includes 121 messages there will be distributed over 12 weeks. Neither friend nor mother is invited to participate.

Behavioral: 8: Standardized SMS program not implicating mother or friend

9: No SMS program

OTHER

Control Group; no SMS-based educational program

Behavioral: 9: No SMS program

Interventions

1: Tailored SMS program implicating friend and mother BEHAVIORAL

1: Tailored, friend and mother

2: Standardized SMS program implicating friend and mother BEHAVIORAL

2: Standardized, friend and mother

3: Tailored SMS program implicating friend, not mother BEHAVIORAL

3:Tailored, friend and not mother

4: Standardized SMS program implicating friend, not mother BEHAVIORAL

4: Standardized, friend and not mother

5: Tailored SMS program implicating mother, not friend BEHAVIORAL

5:Tailored, mother and not friend

6: Standardized SMS program implicating mother, not friend BEHAVIORAL

6: Standardized, mother and not friend

7: Tailored SMS program not implicating mother or friend BEHAVIORAL

7:Tailored, not friend, not mother

8: Standardized SMS program not implicating mother or friend BEHAVIORAL

8: Standardized, not friend, not mother

9: No SMS program BEHAVIORAL

9: No SMS program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 14 Years - 15 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Adolescents participating in the Danish National Birth Cohort

You may not qualify if:

• Lacking information from maternal interviews 1 and 2

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Centre for Fetal Programming, Denmark: lead
• Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH): collaborator
• Epidemic Health, Inc.: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Statens Serum Institut

Copenhagen, DK-2300, Denmark

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Bjerregaard AA, Zoughbie DE, Hansen JV, Granstrom C, Strom M, Halldorsson ThornI, Meder IK, Willett WC, Ding EL, Olsen SF. An SMS chatbot digital educational program to increase healthy eating behaviors in adolescence: A multifactorial randomized controlled trial among 7,890 participants in the Danish National Birth Cohort. PLoS Med. 2024 Jun 14;21(6):e1004383. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004383. eCollection 2024 Jun.

  PMID: 38875292 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Feeding Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior, Animal; Behavior

Study Officials

• Sjurdur F Olsen, Ph.D.

  Statens Serum Institut

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Eric Ding, ScD

  Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Daniel Zoughbie

  Epidemic Health, Inc.

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 20, 2016
• First Posted: June 22, 2016
• Primary Completion: October 6, 2018
• Study Completion: October 6, 2018
• Last Updated: May 31, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

DK (1)