Text Messaging Helping Adolescents Manage Diabetes

Nationwide Children’s Hospital is piloting a study to see how the use of text messaging can help teenage diabetics better manage their disease and outcomes.  Jennifer Dyer, MD, MPH, developed the study which sent weekly customized text messages to remind adolescent diabetes patients about their personal treatment activities.

Studies have shown that adolescent patients have a greater difficulty adhering to treatment and medication activities than adults with diabetes with the rate of medication non-adherence among adolescents being approximately four times higher than that among adults. 

Coupling that stat with the fact that the average teen sends about 50 texts daily, Dyer began sending personalized texts to her adolescent patients asking questions about glucose testing, meal boluses and frequency of high and low glucoses.  At the conclusion of the study, Dyer found an increase in overall treatment adherence and improved blood glucose levels within teen patients.  

“This form of communication allows for real-time health management which is extremely valuable for patients that suffer from a chronic illness like diabetes,” said Dyer.

Due to the success of this study, Dyer has applied for an internal grant to test development of an iPhone application that would allow physicians to send personalized, yet automated texts to multiple patients at a specific time.

For more on the story, see the release from Nationwide Children’s