Study: Healthy Texts Could Help HIV Treatment

The simple act of receiving a regularly scheduled, health-minded text message can help people with HIV follow drug treatment regimens, according to a new study published online in The Lancet.

Kenyans with HIV who received a weekly text message asking, "Mambo?," meaning "How are you?" in Kiswahili, were 12% more likely to have undetectable levels of the HIV virus one year after starting antiretroviral treatment.

"Considering the ubiquity of mobile phones and the minimal expense of sending text messages, this practice can be an extremely cost-effective way of improving outcomes for HIV patients," Dr. Richard Lester, the University of British Columbia researcher who led the study, said in a press release.