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Text messaging: an innovative method of data collection in medical research

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Research Notes, December 2010
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Title
Text messaging: an innovative method of data collection in medical research
Published in
BMC Research Notes, December 2010
DOI 10.1186/1756-0500-3-342
Pubmed ID
Authors

ST Kew

Abstract

The ubiquitous use of mobile phones in sending and receiving text messages has become a norm for young people. Undeniably, text messaging has become a new and important communication medium not only in the social realm but in education as well. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using text messaging as a means to collect data for a medical research project.A cross sectional study was carried out during a double blind, randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of a probiotic in the management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The study aim was to assess the response rate of weekly symptom reports via Short Message Service (SMS). The subjects were undergraduates in a private medical university in Malaysia. They were identified through a previous university wide study as suffering from IBS based on Rome III criteria. The subjects were randomly assigned to either the treatment arm receiving a daily probiotic, or the placebo arm. They were required to score their symptoms using eight-item-questionnaires at baseline, and thereafter weekly, for a total of 8 weeks. All subjects were given the choice to communicate their symptom scores by text messaging via mobile phones or by email. SMS text messages were sent to remind trial subjects to attend face-to-face visits and to complete a paper based 34-item-questionnaires on IBS quality of life assessment at baseline and at end of 8 weeks.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 104 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 2 2%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Kenya 1 <1%
France 1 <1%
South Africa 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Unknown 97 93%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 22 21%
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 13%
Student > Doctoral Student 12 12%
Student > Master 11 11%
Student > Postgraduate 9 9%
Other 22 21%
Unknown 14 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 31 30%
Social Sciences 13 13%
Computer Science 11 11%
Psychology 7 7%
Nursing and Health Professions 6 6%
Other 18 17%
Unknown 18 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 September 2015.
All research outputs
#17,654,408
of 22,661,413 outputs
Outputs from BMC Research Notes
#2,819
of 4,248 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#160,075
of 181,847 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Research Notes
#32
of 34 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,661,413 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 19th percentile – i.e., 19% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,248 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.5. This one is in the 29th percentile – i.e., 29% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 181,847 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 11th percentile – i.e., 11% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 34 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 5th percentile – i.e., 5% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.