PSY30001 Assignment 1 - 64% PDF

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SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY PSY30001 Psychology of Health Assessment 1: Article Critique

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Word count Reference of selected article: Lim, M. S., Hocking, J. S., Aitken, C. K., Fairley, C. K., Jordan, L., Lewis, J. A., & Hellard, M. E. (2012). Impact of text and email messaging on the sexual health of young people: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66(1), 69-74. doi:10.1136/jech.2009.100396

Declaration: I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.

The aim of the chosen article was to conduct a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of text messaging and emails on teenagers and their sexual health, and whether it can improve STI awareness and condom usage. 994 people aged between 16-29 were randomized into two groups, the control group and the group that received sexual health promotions via SMS and email. Participants completed a starting questionnaire at the music festival they were recruited, then online after 3, 6 and 12 months. Opinions on the text messages were favorable over emails as an option for sexual health awareness, people who received the SMS were more likely to show a friend or family member and they were entertaining in comparison to emails. The results found that 34% of people completed the follow up questionnaires and 39% completed the final questionnaire, showing after 12 months the intervention group showed a higher rate of STI knowledge in both males and females, women were more likely to have an STI test and to discuss sexual health with a doctor. There was no significant change in the use of condoms in the intervention group compared to control. The research report was externally peer reviewed, and it has an impact factor of 3.872. The main author of the study Dr. Megan SC Lim is an established researcher in this field and is the Deputy Program Director of Behaviors and Health Risks at Burnet Institute (Lim, 2019).

The research report showed several strengths. The use of electronic interventions on the awareness and knowledge of STI in both men and women proved to be successful with the study producing significant results in two out of three of its targeted areas of study. The use of clustered weighted estimating equations for data analysis to account for participants dropping out and coming back into the experiment later was also a strength as it covered what could be a major flaw in the experimental design. The study noted that the recruitment

of participants from a community venue was a strength in the experiment due to its representation of the average population as opposed to them being from a clinical setting.

The major limitation of this study was the self-reporting nature of the experiment and the loss to follow up, which the author noted has been queried in other studies. The loss to follow up was noted to create bias into the study which can take away from the validity of the experiment and discredit. Another limitation in the self-reporting nature of the experiment was whether participants received any contact from the researchers and the fact that it was virtually impossible to know this. Another weakness of the study was the hypothesis relating to condoms and whether the intervention would increase the use of them. This was refuted in the results as there was no significant change in the use of condoms.

A possible way this study could be improved could be the type of text messages and emails sent to participants when conducting the research part of the experiment. A metaanalysis on text messaging interventions for health promotions found that studies conducted with tailored messages were found to have a better chance of increasing knowledge, as did studies which used decreasing messaging over the course of the experiment (Head, Noar, Iannarino & Grant Harrington, 2013). Considering the experiment did not have any significant change in relation to condom usage, a change in the way that message is delivered could also be a possible improvement to the experiment. Messages in relation to how to use a condom and possibly even picture or video intervention as opposed to witty quips could be a possible way to increase condom usage in later studies.

References Head, K., Noar, S., Iannarino, N., & Grant Harrington, N. (2013). Efficacy of text messagingbased interventions for health promotion: A meta-analysis. Social Science & Medicine, 97, 41-48. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.08.003 Lim, D. (2019). Doctor Megan SC Lim | Burnet Institute. Retrieved from https://www.burnet.edu.au/people/147_megan_lim...