Daily motivational text messages impact on college students’ nutritional awareness and physical activity levels

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of receiving daily motivational text messages on the change in college students’ nutritional choices and levels of physical activity. Participants: Two hundred and one university students participated in an eight-week experimental/control group study. Methods: All participants received a brochure that contained nutritional and physical-activity information. The survey consisted of three parts: demographic information, health and diet, and physical activity. All participants completed a self-administered survey at the beginning and the end of the eight-week study. The experimental group participants received a daily motivational-text message. Results: There were significant interactions between group and time on most of the health and diet items, but there were no significant interactions on the physical activity items. Conclusions: It is crucial to monitor and promote college students’ nutrition and physical activity behaviors. The study findings will be vital in designing interventions that enhance college students’ general health.

Keywords:

• MyPlate
• text messages
• nutrition
• physical activity
• college students

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Hannah Gross, Lea Ann Gomez, Crystal Nguyen, and Loretta Lyken in the participants recruitment and data collection for this study.

Conflict of interest disclosure

There is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by an internal grant from College of Health and Human Services in one of the public universities in Southern California.