“Our project was to develop and to evaluate an intervention that would help individuals manage their chronic illnesses,” said Kristynia Robinson, associate professor in NMSU’S School of Nursing. “We worked with residents in our county including rural areas and we used promotoras, which are community health workers.”
Note the use of “promotoras”…. [gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NMSU-professors-use-tablets-to-study-technology-health-behaviors-Las-Cruces-Sun-News.pdf”]
I must say I am underwhelmed by the “study” – at least as described in the article.
There appears to be no A/B testing so it may be that the results are strictly due to the Hawthorne effect.
Then there is the magnitude of the intervention: “During the project, promotoras were sent two text messages and one email message
per week”
Since they say this was a 6 week program, this is a total of 12 text messages and 6 e-mails. It is hard for me to imaging that this, by itself. led to a major change in the healthy activities of their clients. If it is, maybe the same effect could be obtained by sending 18 form letters.
I really don’t see what was proven.