Text4IBD: Feasibility, acceptability, and engagement with a self-management mHealth intervention for people with inflammatory bowel disease (Preprint)

BACKGROUND mHealth technologies can be useful for providing disease self-management information and support to people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). OBJECTIVE This study tested a self-management text messaging intervention for people with IBD. Our goal was to examine intervention feasibility, acceptability, and engagement, and to preliminarily evaluate improvements in certain self-reported health outcomes among participants. METHODS We developed a text messaging program called “Text4IBD.” The program sent daily support messages and resources about disease self-management over the course of a 2-week, single group, pretest-posttest intervention to participants (N=114) diagnosed with IBD. We examined intervention feasibility and acceptability, as well as engagement through Text4IBD message topic recall and use of resources (i.e., visiting supplemental websites recommended by the Text4IBD program). We also assessed pretest-posttest measures of IBD-related distress, self-efficacy, perceived support, use of coping strategies, and medication adherence. Analyses examined participant evaluations of the intervention and compared pretest-posttest changes in secondary outcomes using paired-samples statistics. RESULTS Nearly all participants were receptive to Text4IBD and viewed the program as feasible and acceptable. In addition, most participants (98%) recalled at least one of the message topics sent by the program and 79% self-reported engaging with at least one of the external self-management resources recommended by the Text4IBD program. Pretest-posttest results showed reduced IBD-related distress (M=3.33 vs. M=2.86; p<.001) and improvement on most other secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this work highlight the value of text messaging as a useful digital medium for providing support to people with IBD, particularly for those who may struggle with disease-related distress. Text4IBD was highly feasible and acceptable and may help people self-manage their IBD. Future work should aim to evaluate this program in a randomized controlled trial in clinical settings.