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SMS text messaging as a means of improving memory

Thu 06 Sep 2012

This small-scale trial examined the benefit of sending SMS text messages to participants' mobile phones to remind them of rehabilitation goals

This small-scale trial examined the benefit of sending SMS text messages to participants' mobile phones to remind them of rehabilitation goals. The aim was to see if this familiar, cheap and readily available technology could help people with severe or very severe brain injury to participate in goal-based rehabilitation.

Each participant was recruited from a post-acute rehabilitation unit and had a minimum of six goals they were already working towards. A randomly-selected three of their six goals were sent as a text reminder three times a day, with the remaining three goals requiring the participant to remember them without being prompted. The team also associated 'cue words' with each goal, which is a commonly used method to support recall.

At the start of the study (baseline), then after seven days and 14 days, the participants were asked to describe their goals, both as an open question (free recall) and when the cue words were read out (cued recall).

The results showed that text prompts lead to statistically significant improvement in recall of rehabilitation goals at seven and 14 days for both free and cued recall. This study shows that awareness of rehabilitation goals can be improved using text messages, providing a readily available tool for rehabilitation teams.

Reference

Campbell, C; Evans, J. SMS text messaging as a means of increasing recall of therapy goals in brain injury rehabilitation: A single-blind within-subjects trial,Neuropsychological rehabilitation Vol 20 Issue 1, Jan 2010

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