Pilot of an Interactive Social Marketing Initiative to Improve Family Physical Activity among Parents with Preschoolers Erica Doxzen, School of Public Health Irina Iles, Department of Communication Sarah Pomerantz, School of Public Health Dr. Linda Aldoory, School of Public Health (Faculty Mentor)

Our Motivation  35.7% of adults and 15% of preschool-aged children in the US are obese  Physical activity can reduce the risk of obesity  Parents influence the activity levels of their preschool-aged children

Our Vision VIRTUAL SMS LIBRARY Our Team Parent (end user) What should we do with our kids? Do you want to be active outside or inside today? Text 1 for outside, 2 for inside. 2 [inside] Move like your child’s favorite animal (a bird or a bunny?) while picking up toys together.

Our Motivation FiA Priorities: 1.Credibility 1.InfoEquity 1.InfoTransfer

Creation and Research Draft sample messages Conduct 4 focus groups in community settings (n=17) Develop pilot message library Deliver tailored messages in 7-day pilot test Conduct interviews with pilot test participants (n=16) Refine message library This research was approved by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board.

Focus Groups at a Glance 1 Wheaton, MD 5 Caucasian Participants 2 Hyattsville, MD 3 Hispanic English-Speaking Participants 3 Oxon Hill, MD 4 African-American Participants 4 Hyattsville, MD 5 Hispanic English-Speaking Participants “I like the idea of reminding that that’s something you can do, just jumping jacks or a quick game of hide and seek.” – Caucasian mother “I don’t know what type of luxurious home you live in but I don’t have many hiding spaces, so hide and seek would be over with extremely fast. I’m in a one level rambler so there’s really nowhere to go.” – African-American father

Pilot Test at a Glance  Participants received 7 days of interactive messages sent using Google Voice SMS  Interviews conducted by phone “I didn't know if you guys specialize or study what kids like, but I loved how my daughter was so excited knowing we were going to do an activity with the balloons – ‘Here Mommy, Here Mommy!” – Hispanic mother

Outcomes and Impact: Credibility Value of “curated” content Opportunity to guide information seeking Different beliefs about message content Need to consider culturally appropriate frames Willingness to share information via text Opportunity to get public health data in real-time

Different information behaviors Access to technology ≠ use of technology Different resources “Pandora” model for adaptive learning Outcomes and Impact: InfoEquity

Interactive messaging works! Hybrid system: automated + human to human Message tailoring works! Additional tailoring factors: time of the day to receive the message; current activity level of parent/child; locale Texting fits into everyday life SMS integration into “quantified self” tracking dashboard Outcomes and Impact: InfoTransfer

Next Steps  Messages  Pilot message library refined message library  Technology  Automated system to meet the specifications found valuable during the pilot  Evaluation  Rigorous study to assess impact of initiative on parents’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors

THANK YOU!