Evidence-based text messages for people with diabetes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing evidence-based diet and physical activity text messages for people with Type 2 Diabetes
IRAS ID
316179
Contact name
Y K Bartlett
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 31 days
Research summary
Aim: To assess how acceptable text messages that target diet and physical activity are to people with type 2 diabetes
What we know:
• Following diet and physical activity advice helps to reduce the risk of health problems for people with type 2 diabetes
• Just telling people about a healthy diet, or ideal levels of physical activity may not change what someone does day-to-day.
• Techniques designed to help people change their behaviour, such as setting goals, can help people act
• Text messages can be sent to large numbers of people, for a low cost
• For the best chance of success, the messages must a) be acceptable to the people receiving them and b) use techniques to help people to make changes
How we’re going to achieve our aim: We worked with people with type 2 diabetes, doctors, nurses, dietitians, and researchers to identify key target behaviours. We found techniques that have helped people change their diet and levels of activity from previous research. We then worked with experts in behaviour change to write text messages that target these key behaviours, using the evidence-based techniques.
This application covers the next stage of the process. Sixty people with type 2 diabetes will complete a survey to tell us whether they like and understand the messages and how useful they think they would be. Then forty people with type 2 diabetes will receive the messages for up 3 months and take part in an interview to help us understand their experiences. This process will help us learn how acceptable these messages are to people with type 2 diabetes and remove any that are not acceptable. Participants will be recruited from a database of people interested in research and GP surgeries. Funding has been awarded by NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (NIHR202832).REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/EE/0098
Date of REC Opinion
25 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion