Text messaging to promote responsible personal listening device use in young adults

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to examine efficacy of text message reminders and to educate and promote safe personal listening device (PLD) use in young adults. METHODS: Three hundred and eighty-seven urban college students from an urban university located in New York City, New York, participated in this pre- and postsurvey 6-month study (September 2016–March 2017). One hundred and ninety-eight students assigned to Group 1 (safe PLD use) received biweekly informative and humorous text reminders to encourage safe PLD use; 189 students assigned to Group 2 (controls) received monthly text messages related to the importance of their participation in the study with no mention of responsible PLD use. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to analyze the pre- and postquestionnaire data; outcomes were considered significant at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Participants who received text message reminders reported significant (H[1] = 86.7, P < 0.001) change in increasing responsible PLD use; no significant change was reported by controls (H[1] = 0.002, P = 0.96). Females assigned to Group 1 reported modified PLD use more (H[1] = 6.7, P < 0.01) than males, suggesting a gender effect. Participants who received the bi-weekly text reminders rated them as helpful in promoting responsible PLD use; participants assigned to the control group who did not receive biweekly text reminders indicated the reminders could have been helpful in promoting safe PLD use. CONCLUSIONS: Text message reminders were reported and appear effective in motivating responsible PLD use in young adults.