Effectiveness of text messages in the adherence to COVID-19 prevention practices: a quasi-experimental study

Souza Neto, Vinicius Lino de; Morais, Sheila Coelho Ramalho Vasconcelos; Pedrosa, Rafaela Batista dos Santos; Yamaguchi, Mirian Ueda; Santos, Eduesley Santana; Cavalcante, Agueda Maria Ruiz Zimmer; Santos, Vinícius Batista; Lopes, Juliana de Lima

doi:10.1590/1518-8345.7810.4707

person Vinicius Lino de Souza Neto

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation · Project supervision and management

schoolUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.schoolScholarship holder at the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil.

0000-0001-8269-2634

person Sheila Coelho Ramalho Vasconcelos Morais

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation

schoolUniversidade Federal do Pernambuco, Departamento de Enfermagem, Recife, PE, Brazil.

0000-0001-9831-0338

person Rafaela Batista dos Santos Pedrosa

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation

schoolUniversidade Estadual de Campinas, Departamento de Enfermagem, Campinas, SP, Brazil.

0000-0003-2918-9778

person Mirian Ueda Yamaguchi

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation

schoolCentro Universitário de Maringá, Departamento de Saúde, Maringá, PR, Brazil.

0000-0001-5065-481X

person Eduesley Santana Santos

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation

schoolUniversidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de Enfermagem, Maceió, SE, Brazil.

0000-0001-8545-5677

person Agueda Maria Ruiz Zimmer Cavalcante

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation

schoolUniversidade Federal do Goiás, Faculdade de Enfermagem, Goiânia, GO, Brazil.

0000-0003-3910-2162

person Vinícius Batista Santos

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation · Project supervision and management

schoolUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

0000-0001-5130-5523

person Juliana de Lima Lopes

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work · or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work · drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content · final approval of the version to be published and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved · Data curation · Project supervision and management

schoolUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

0000-0001-6915-6781

personCorresponding author: Juliana de Lima Lopes E-mail:
juliana.lima@unifesp.br https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6915-6781

Conflict of interest:

the authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Associate Editor:

Omar Pereira de Almeida Neto

Variable	*n (%)** ^†
Sex: Female	327 (76.22)
Age: up 30 years	245 (57.11)
Marital Status
Single	221 (51.51)
Married/common-law married	176 (41.03)
Divorced	28 (6.53)
Widow/widower	4 (0.93)
Family income
Less than a minimum wage ^‡	25 (5.83)
One to three minimum wages ^‡	114 (26.57)
Four to seven minimum wages ^‡	138 (32.17)
Over seven minimum wages ^‡	152 (35.43)
Has children	163 (38.00)
Years of schooling
Less than nine years of study	62 (14.46)
Between nine and eleven years of study	172 (40.09)
More than eleven years of study	195 (45.45)
Religion
Catholic	157 (36.60)
Evangelical	99 (23.07)
Non-religious	94 (21.91)
Spiritist	47 (10.96)
Umbanda adept	16 (3.73)
Christian	7 (1.63)
Agnostic	5 (1.16)
Jehovah’s Witness	2 (0.47)
Hermeticist/Sabbatarian	2 (0.47)
Number of cohabitants
0	51 (11.89)
1	88 (20.51)
2	104 (24.24)
3	96 (22.38)
4	62 (14.45)
More than 4 people	28 (6.53)
Employed	260 (60.61)
Formal workers	231 (88.84)
Informal workers	29 (11.16)

Evaluation week	Minimum	Maximum	25%	Median	75%	IQ*	Mean	95% CI ^†	SD ^‡	CV ^§	p -value ^\|\|	Effect size ^¶	p -value ^**
Before Intervention	22.00	65.00	51.00	57.00	60.00	9.00	54.59	53.85; 55.33	7.81	14.31	<0.001	0.022	<0.001
First week	25.00	65.00	53.00	57.00	61.00	8.00	55.63	54.94; 56.32	7.24	13.01	<0.001
Second week	25.00	65.00	52.00	57.00	61.00	9.00	55.88	55.21; 56.56	7.10	12.71	<0.001
Third week	25.00	65.00	53.00	58.00	61.00	8.00	55.96	55.26; 56.66	7.35	13.14	<0.001
Fourth week	23.00	65.00	53.00	58.00	61.00	8.00	56.22	55.48; 56.95	7.74	13.77	<0.001
Fifth week	25.00	65.00	54.00	58.00	61.00	7.00	56.77	56.12; 57.42	6.89	12.13	<0.001
Sixth week	20.00	65.00	54.00	59.00	61.00	7.00	57.03 ^††	56.38; 57.68	6.85	12.02	<0.001
Seventh week	28.00	65.00	55.00	59.00	62.00	7.00	57.39 ^††	56.79; 57.99	6.32	11.02	<0.001

Question	Before Intervention	First week	Second week	Third week	Fourth week	Fifth week	Sixth week	Seven week	p -value ^†
Question	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	Mean (SD*)	p -value ^†
1. In the last week, how often did you wear the mask when you left home?	4.87 (0.47)	4.86 (0.47)	4.85 (0.47) ^‡	4.85 (0.50)	4.8 (0.64)	4.85 (0.56)	4.89 (0.46)	4.93 (0.28) ^‡	0.004
2. In the last week, how often did you wash your mask with soap and water when you got home?	4.10 (1.34)	4.21 (1.24)	4.18 (1.26)	4.16 (1.26)	4.15 (1.30)	4.14 (1.29)	4.26 (1.20)	4.26 (1.21)	0.183
3. In the last week, how often did you take your mask off to talk on the phone when you were away from home?	4.35 (1.14)	4.42 (1.10)	4.48 (0.99)	4.48 (1.01)	4.48(1.06)	4.57 (0.93) ^§	4.56 (0.95) ^§	4.57(0.95) ^§	<0.001
4. In the last week, how often did you take your mask off to go to the toilet when you were away from home?	4.38 (1.11)	4.42 (1.09)	4.48 (1.02)	4.46 (1.06)	4.49 (0.99)	4.53 (0.91)	4.56 (0.88) ^§	4.56 (0.88) ^§	0.004
5. In the last week, how often have you worn a mask on the subway, bus, train, or in the car in the presence of others?	3.36 (1.78)	3.48 (1.73)	3.49 (1.70)	3.39 (1.75)	3.45 (1.75)	3.45 (1.75)	3.53 (1.75)	3.49 (1.76)	0.327
6. In the last week, how often have you changed your mask whenever it was wet?	3.95 (1.43)	4.09 (1.35)	4.12 (1.31)	4.11 (1.27)	4.19 (1.25)	4.21 (1.20) ^§	4.21 (1.22) ^§	4.32 (1.08) ^§	<0.001
7. In the last week, how often did you take your mask off to talk to someone when you were away from home?	4.38 (1.05)	4.43 (1.02)	4.43 (1.03)	4.43 (1.07)	4.52 (1.00)	4.55 (0.93) ^§	4.54 (0.95) ^§	4.59 (0.86) ^§	<0.001
8. In the last week, how often have you used a mask that covered your mouth and nose when you were away from home?	4.71 (0.82)	4.76 (0.72)	4.76 (0.70)	4.74 (0.75)	4.76 (0.75)	4.81 (0.63)	4.83 (0.64)	4.86 (0.55) ^§	<0.001
9. In the past week, how often did you carry an extra mask in your bag to change it if necessary?	3.90 (1.48)	4.05 (1.38)	4.07 (1.37)	4.12 (1.33)	4.13 (1.31)	4.12 (1.37)	4.15 (1.31)	4.15 (1.30)	0.024
10. In the past week, how often did you maintain a distance of one meter from others when you left home?	3.89 (1.13)	4.09 (0.96) ^§	4.13 (0.97) ^§	4.11 (1.03) ^§	4.16 (1.04) ^§	4.18 (1.0) ^§	4.22 (0.92) ^§	4.24 (0.93) ^§	<0.001
11. In the past week, how often did you take your mask away by the ear loops after use?	4.35 (1.08)	4.48 (0.95)	4.50 (0.95)	4.53 (0.97)	4.54 (0.94) ^§	4.65 (0.79) ^§	4.65 (0.79) ^§	4.68 (0.72) ^§	<0.001
12. In the past week, how often did you sanitize your hands or use 70% alcohol after touching the front of your mask?	4.05 (1.14)	4.02 (1.13)	4.08 (1.14)	4.22 (1.03) ^§	4.21 (1.07) ^§	4.32 (0.95) ^§	4.28 (0.98) ^§	4.30 (0.97) ^§	<0.001
13. In the past week, how often did you sanitize your hands or use 70% alcohol after touching an object outside your home?	4.31 (0.96)	4.32 (0.93)	4.31 (0.96)	4.36 (0.96)	4.35 (0.95)	4.40 (0.88)	4.38 (0.95)	4.43 (0.88)	0.150

[1] ^*n = Sample Number; ^†% = Percentage; ^‡Minimum wage = 1,039.00 Brazilian reais in 2020

Effectiveness of text messages in the adherence to COVID-19 prevention practices: a quasi-experimental study^*

Highlights:

Effectiveness of text messages in the adherence to COVID-19 prevention practices: a quasi-experimental study*

Highlights:

Effectiveness of text messages in the adherence to COVID-19 prevention practices: a quasi-experimental study^*