Reaching for that extra cookie sounds like a good idea, but then your cell phone rings. “How many servings of fruits and vegetables have you had today?” the text reads. Despite text messaging’s growing use among cell phone owners, few studies have been done regarding how texts can be used to combat addiction to food or tobacco.
Researchers from UC San Diego’s School of Medicine PACE (Patient-centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise and Nutrition) project will launch their first text-related weight loss program, called mDIET, this fall. The 16-week study is funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health and will follow 60 adults, ages 25 to 55, who are overweight or mildly obese.
“It’s something simpler, more portable,” said Kevin Patrick, doctor and director of the pilot program. One unique aspect of the study is that participants will be required to respond, with either a simple “yes” or “no” answer or the number of servings already consumed that day, he added. Each participant will use his or her own cell phone.
Although Patrick had heard of a few tobacco-text programs in New Zealand, he said that most of the research regarding texting as a health tool has come out of Europe because text use became a mainstream form of communication there several years before America.
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Corporate Wellness Insurance: San Diego-based Webster Insurance Agency recently added a wellness program at no cost to the businesses it serves, including those with fewer than 50 employees.
“It’s quite a big deal to companies under 50 employees,” said Tracy Webster, one of the agency’s owners. “We are emulating what companies like Qualcomm do but we’ve brought it down to small businesses.”
Although the agency has more than 3,000 local clients, Webster sees the added wellness program as a way to become proactive brokers to its group health insurance recipients. The program, called “The Wellness Approach,” will offer consultations with health coaches, exercise plans, diet analysis, or walking and running programs.
Webster says it is the first agency to offer a wellness program.
In addition, the agency will partner with other companies, such as 24 Hour Fitness, if a client requests gym memberships at reduced rates for its employees, Webster says.
Employers that use wellness programs can see documented savings in “medical costs, reduced absenteeism, worker’s compensation claims, and short-term disability,” according to a study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that was posted on Webster’s Web site.
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Welcome Back Center Nursing Grant: The San Diego Welcome Back Center received its second federal grant for $850,000 to fund a program that allows internationally trained health care professionals such as physicians or dentists to continue their medical careers as licensed registered nurses.
