A Short Message Service Intervention to Support Adherence to Home-Based Strengthening Exercise for People With Knee Osteoarthritis: Intervention Design Applying the Behavior Change Wheel

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic condition with no known cure. Treatment focuses on symptom management, with exercise recommended as a core component by all clinical practice guidelines. However, long-term adherence to exercise is poor among many people with knee osteoarthritis, which limits its capacity to provide sustained symptom relief. To improve exercise outcomes, scalable interventions that facilitate exercise adherence are needed. SMS (short message service) interventions show promise in health behavior change. The Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) is a widely used framework that provides a structured approach to designing behavior change interventions and has been used extensively in health behavior change intervention design. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to describe the development of, and rationale for, an SMS program to support exercise adherence in people with knee osteoarthritis using the BCW framework. METHODS: The intervention was developed in two phases. Phase 1 involved using the BCW to select the target behavior and associated barriers, facilitators, and behavior change techniques (BCTs). Phase 2 involved design of the program functionality and message library. Messages arranged into a 24-week schedule were provided to an external company to be developed into an automated SMS program. RESULTS: The target behavior was identified as participation in self-directed home-based strengthening exercise 3 times a week for 24 weeks. A total of 13 barriers and 9 facilitators of the behavior and 20 BCTs were selected to use in the intervention. In addition, 198 SMS text messages were developed and organized into a 24-week automated program that functions by prompting users to self-report the number of home exercise sessions completed each week. Users who reported ≥3 exercise sessions/week (adherent) received positive reinforcement messages. Users who reported <3 exercise sessions/week (nonadherent) were asked to select a barrier (from a list of standardized response options) that best explains why they found performing the exercises challenging in the previous week. This automatically triggers an SMS containing a BCT suggestion relevant to overcoming the selected barrier. Users also received BCT messages to facilitate exercise adherence, irrespective of self-reported adherence. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates application of the BCW to guide development of an automated SMS intervention to support exercise adherence in knee osteoarthritis. Future research is needed to assess whether the intervention improves adherence to the prescribed home-based strengthening exercise.