Development of an mHealth text message intervention to promote adherence to COVID-19 isolation recommendations for college students

Abstract

Background: Important tools in preventing the spread of COVID-19 include contract tracing and adherence to isolation guidelines after a positive diagnosis of COVID-19. This is especially relevant among college students who are often away from support systems at home, living in high-density housing, and may not experience serious symptoms from COVID-19 while still contagious. Objective: As text message-based interventions have been found effective in addressing health behaviors among young adults, we conducted formative research to explore how text messaging could support students in adhering to isolation guidelines. Participants: A convenience sample of college students (n = 104) at one university. Methods: An online survey gathered students’ perceptions of helpful components to include in a text message-based intervention. Results: Students expressed interest in receiving text messages with support, encouragement, and resources during their time in isolation following a COVID-19 diagnosis. Conclusions: Based on the results, we developed a text message-based intervention designed to provide motivation, support, distraction, and information on resources.

Keywords:

• Coronavirus
• formative research
• intervention
• mobile health
• SMS
• text message

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in the article met ethical guidelines and was determined to not meet the criteria for human subjects review as per the Washington State University institutional review board.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

AQ4: Please review the inserted funding statement and confirm accuracy OR note any needed funding information.

Notes

1 While we were primarily interested in developing a text message intervention to support students in isolation following a diagnosis, we used phrasing in our items about time spent in quarantine as that was the term students were more familiar with at the time the survey was fielded.

2 As per public health guidance at the time of intervention development