Text messaging to keep kids healthy
Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & safety, Medical conditions
When kids are little, the responsibility for making sure they take necessary medications falls to the parents. You may have to hold them down and force them at times, but that is totally doable. But when they get older, necessity dictates that kids with chronic illnesses begin to take more responsibility for their own health. Short of following them around with a bottle of pills/syringe/inhaler, parents are often powerless to ensure their kids are doing what they need to do in order to stay healthy.
Reasoning that chronically ill kids who don't take their meds are doing so out of forgetfulness, Dr. Maria Britto hit on what may be a very effective way of reminding them: text messages. What better way to grab the attention of a teen these days than via their ever-present cell phone? "You have to get in their face a little," says Britta, an asthma specialist at Cincinnati Children's.
Her idea has evolved into a study to see if daily text message reminders will improve the health of teens who suffer from asthma. Pilot testing has begun and a full study will get underway later in the year. Study participant Kabrina Moton confesses that in the past, she has gone a whole month without taking her asthma medication. Now, she gets a happy little reminder each evening and she says she hasn't missed a dose. "It always says, 'Have a nice day,'" she says. "It makes me feel good about it."
If Dr. Britto's idea proves successful for asthma patients, it stands to reason that it would work for other diseases as well. "We have the science," Britto says. "We just can't figure out how to get the right drugs into the right kids' bodies." Maybe now they have.
Reasoning that chronically ill kids who don't take their meds are doing so out of forgetfulness, Dr. Maria Britto hit on what may be a very effective way of reminding them: text messages. What better way to grab the attention of a teen these days than via their ever-present cell phone? "You have to get in their face a little," says Britta, an asthma specialist at Cincinnati Children's.
Her idea has evolved into a study to see if daily text message reminders will improve the health of teens who suffer from asthma. Pilot testing has begun and a full study will get underway later in the year. Study participant Kabrina Moton confesses that in the past, she has gone a whole month without taking her asthma medication. Now, she gets a happy little reminder each evening and she says she hasn't missed a dose. "It always says, 'Have a nice day,'" she says. "It makes me feel good about it."
If Dr. Britto's idea proves successful for asthma patients, it stands to reason that it would work for other diseases as well. "We have the science," Britto says. "We just can't figure out how to get the right drugs into the right kids' bodies." Maybe now they have.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Don 5-22-2008 @ 12:39PM
It's a nice idea but I think parents should talk to school administrators before going ahead with this. Almost any teenager will tell you that their school has a no cell phone policy and if your caught with one it can be taken away and the child can be reprimanded.
As long as the school knows the purpose behind the program they may allow certain children to have their phones with them in class.
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daizees 5-22-2008 @ 2:41PM
My initial response is, "Yikes!" I communicate with my teen daughter a LOT via txting, so I love the technology for communicating with her...but the idea of my teen self medicating via a txt promp is alarming to me. My daughter doesn't have a life threatening condition, and I suppose if she did I might look at this differently, but she does take 2 meds a day...and we administer them both. I guess it depends on the person, but she's a teen, not an adult. As the parents, we're responsible for seeing (and I use that literally) that she's taking her meds correctly, in the right dose and on time.
To support Don's point...every school is different regarding cell phone use during the day. One local school doesn't care as long as it's not during a test...another will take the phone away if it's used at any time during the day; even between classes.
daizees 5-22-2008 @ 3:01PM
My initial response is, "Yikes!" I communicate with my teen daughter a LOT via txting, so I love the technology for communicating with her...but the idea of my teen self medicating via a txt promp is alarming to me. My daughter doesn't have a life threatening condition, and I suppose if she did I might look at this differently, but she does take 2 meds a day...and we administer them both. I guess it depends on the person, but she's a teen, not an adult. As the parents, we're responsible for seeing (and I use that literally) that she's taking her meds correctly, in the right dose and on time.
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Maggie 5-22-2008 @ 5:54PM
Foster Cline and Lisa Greene wrote a book last year called "Parenting Children with Health Issues". It has a lot of great tips for raising kids with chronic illness, medical conditions, and special healthcare needs. You can find it at www.loveandlogic.com. Maybe parents don't need to rely on text messages to get their kids to take care of themselves...
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Mom3Xs 5-28-2008 @ 9:14PM
Um....hello? I was a bit disturbed by this article. A. My 11 year old does not need a cell phone for any reason. There are many 'tweens' that do not have one. B. "parents are often powerless to ensure kids are doing what they need to do"? Is it not our job to stay in power until they are either an adult, or have left our residence? Let's not accept that the 'tweens' of this world are taking over any time soon.
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