Texts a world first to keep adolescents brushing

Texts a world first to keep adolescents brushing

NZ Population Health Congress media release, 6 October 2014

A simple programme that sends text messages reminding young adults to brush their teeth could be the solution to the chronic state of oral health in New Zealand, according to a presentation at the NZ Population Health Congress in Auckland today.

Belinda Smith, from Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), said the Ministry of Health was concerned by the number of emergency dental care grants being given by Work and Income (WINZ) to unemployed young adults.

“We wanted to remind people to brush their teeth. We know about the success smoking cessation services has had with text reminders, and knew young adults are always on their phones, so we thought we’d give it a go too,” Ms Smith said.

The Ministry of Health funded the project team which included Pegasus Health PHO, Canterbury District Health Board and the University of Canterbury. The team worked with WINZ to recruit a large number of unemployed young adults in Christchurch to join the project. Over a 10-week period participants received a series of motivational text messages reminding them to brush their teeth, and asking them to indicate whether they’d been brushing.

“When we started only 53 percent reported they were brushing their teeth. By the end of the 10 weeks that had risen to 73 percent. Even better was that this success stretched across all the participants, and this wasn’t limited to any particular age, gender or ethnic group.”

Ms Smith said the programme looks to be the first of its kind in the world, and while it was still in its infancy, they were planning to use it again to continue to tackle New Zealand’s growing problem with oral health.

“47 percent of Canterbury adults have had a tooth extracted. Tooth brushing twice daily is an essential habit to prevent dental disease.”

“One of the programme’s advantages is that it’s relatively easy to implement, and allows us to contact hard-to-reach populations to address health disparities. It’s also cost effective, and could significantly reduce the amount of tax payer money spent on emergency dental care,” Ms Smith said.

ENDS

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