Design and acceptability of a psychosocial text messaging intervention for victims of gender-based violence

Abstract

Mobile phones can produce detailed and personalized data to help diagnose, treat, prevent or rehabilitate women who are victims of gender violence. We sent automatic text messages, based on cognitive-behavioural therapy, to female victims of gender violence to assess the feasibility of the medium for mental health intervention. During the 28-day intervention period, each woman received four automatic text messages every day on a pre-established schedule. We evaluated symptoms of depression using the Personal Health Questionnaire-9. The Personal Health Questionnaire-9 decreased from an average of 14.8 at the beginning of the intervention, to 6.1 at the end of the text messaging period. All of the women reported that they liked receiving the messages, they found them useful and they felt that the messages had improved their health. Text messages are acceptable to women users who are recipients of public health and social services. Future research should focus more on the evaluation of the results and on how the specific content and aspects of text messaging improve health outcomes.

Keywords: cognitive-behavioural therapy; mobile phones; text messages; violence; women.