Connecting communities of need with public health: Can SMS text-messaging improve outreach communication?

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Communities of need face many health crises and often rely on our public health system or their community-based organizations for help in lieu of medical practitioners or clinics. These same communities also turn to affordable cell phones in lieu of landlines for mobility, and cost savings. Public health practitioners and community practitioners who provide local services find ongoing communication with these individuals in communities of need, can be a challenge and raises our research question:. Can SMS text-messaging be used as an affordable means to improve outreach communication and disseminate information between community practitioners? A field study of 50 participants was conducted to collect communication protocol responses through an SMS text-messaging simulation. The web-based training application presented a crisis scenario and plain language training. The findings of this study suggest potential use of SMS text-messaging as a communication medium for exchange between field practitioners. A contribution of this research is the data collection in a community setting for analysis in bridging the digital divide where affordability is a limitation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2008, HICSS
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Event41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2008, HICSS - Big Island, HI, United States
Duration: 7 Jan 200810 Jan 2008

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
ISSN (Print)1530-1605

Conference

Conference41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2008, HICSS
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityBig Island, HI
Period7/01/0810/01/08

Keywords

  • Communities of need
  • Culture
  • Emergency response
  • Mobile technology
  • Public health
  • SMS text-messaging

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