ASPO Abstracts
Analysis of emoji use in SMS-based lifestyle interventions applied to the ¬°Mi Vida Saludable! (MiVS) study
Category: Behavioral Science & Health Communication
Conference Year: 2022
Abstract Body:
Purpose: To evaluate participant use of emojis in the ¬°Mi Vida Saludable! (My Healthy Life) study to improve diet and physical activity in Spanish- and English-speaking Latina breast cancer survivors.Methods: Participants randomly assigned to the 11-month eHealth communication (text messaging, emails, Cook for Your Life website) intervention were included in this analysis (n=83). Participants received 200 outgoing SMS messages based on behavioral theory to promote diet and physical activity behavior change. Incoming SMS data from participants were extracted and content was coded. Identified emojis were matched to the relevant emoji text string (e.g., U0001f600) and type (e.g., smiley face) and coded for attributes (positive, negative, neutral). Outgoing SMS messages classified according to topic and behavioral construct were merged with incoming participant responses by timestamp to identify which outgoing messages received responses. Proportions of message topic and construct responses were calculated for each participant. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables of interest. Differences in demographic and clinical characteristics according to emoji use were tested using two-sided independent sample t-tests and chi-square tests. Results: SMS data were obtained for 83 participants. Over the 11-month intervention period, the number of responses sent by each participant ranged from 0 to 103 and 31.3% of women were spontaneous emoji users. Positive affect emojis were the most commonly sent. Emoji users were more likely to speak mostly Spanish (p=0.04). Emoji users engaged the most with SMS message related to behavioral capability, facilitating, motivational, self-efficacy and goal setting content. No differences in diet and physical activity behavioral outcomes were observed between emoji users and non-users. Conclusion: Text-based SMS messaging is a mainstay in today's society and if effective, is a relatively low-cost intervention for improving health behaviors. In the ¬°Mi Vida Saludable! nearly one third of Latina breast cancer survivors spontaneously engaged in messaging using emojis. Future studies should consider the use of emojis for outgoing messages and plan for the use of emojis in incoming messages from participants.
Keywords: eHealth, text messages, lifestyle behaviors, Latina breast cancer survivors, emoji