Step-2-It: Feasibility of SMS Technology to Increase Physical Activity

Rural women are more likely to be obese and have a higher risk for chronic disease than their non-rural counterparts. Inadequate physical activity (PA) at least in part contributes to this increased risk. Rural women face personal, social and environmental barriers to PA engagement. Interventions promoting walking among rural women have demonstrated success; however, few of these studies use text messaging to promote PA. Step-2-It was a pilot study to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of text-messaging combined with a pedometer to promote PA, specifically walking among English-speaking women, aged 40 and older, living in a rural, northwest Illinois county. There were two components to the 13-week, Step-2-It intervention: (i) participants used the pedometer to track and report their steps via text message daily; and (ii) participants received an informational or motivational text message daily. Enrolled participants completed baseline assessments, received pedometers and two types of automated text messages: motivational messages to encourage walking, and accountability messages to report pedometer steps. Participants engaged in 3, 6, 9, and 12-week follow-ups to download pedometer data, and completed post-intervention assessments at 12 weeks.