Intervention Duration
The study was a 2-group RCT conducted from February to April 2022 (3 months), during which 3 visits were conducted. In the first visit, at the end of January, all participants were oriented about the study, and the participants in the intervention group received an orientation session to demonstrate how weekly PA will be measured using the Google Fit: Activity Tracking app (Google) on their smartphones. The second visit was performed 1 week after the first visit to obtain the baseline measurements using a web-based survey to measure the participant’s demographics, weight, and height for participants in both groups. The intervention group had an extra item that asked about the weekly step count obtained from the tracking app. During the second visit, 3 months after the second visit, we obtained the follow-up measurements for both groups. During the whole study period, the participants in the intervention group received 2 text messages each day (1 during the morning hours and 1 during the night hours). Additionally, at the end of each week, participants in the intervention group received weekly instructions to self-monitor their weekly step count obtained from the smartphone app, keep a diary of their weekly steps, and provide any feedback about the intervention. The control group received no text messages for the whole duration of the study.