Baylor's HealthyBearsTXT sends wellness tips straight to students' phones

You have 4/5 articles left.Sign up for a free account or log in.

Sign Up, It's FREELogin

A health promotion texting campaign at Baylor University empowers students to make good choices in their physical and emotional habits.

Riska/E+/Getty Images

Young people are bombarded with messages to their phones every day; one study estimates teens receive 237 notifications on a typical day.

A new initiative at Baylor University seeks to send positive messages to students throughout the week, encouraging them to practice self-care and invest in their health and well-being.

HealthyBearsTXT launched this fall as a cross-campus collaboration between faculty and health services staff to understand how text message interventions can influence student behaviors as well as increase students' awareness and use of campus supports. Each text message is drafted by students but includes research-backed insights from faculty and staff, making it relevant to the Baylor community.

Most Popular

• White House Floats Compact for Preferential Treatment
• Mike Gavin Resigns to Lead DEI Defense Coalition
• Scientific Publishing Industry Faces Federal Scrutiny

What's the need: Mental health is regarded as a top barrier to student persistence in higher education; an April 2024 survey by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found emotional stress (54 percent) and mental health (43 percent) were the primary concerns of currently enrolled college students.

Despite the high level of need, few students are aware of their campuses' health and well-being resources. A 2025 survey by Tyton Partners found that 41 percent of students were aware of mental health counseling services at their college and 31 percent knew about the student health clinic, but only a fraction of respondents said they actually used those resources (15 percent and 10 percent, respectively).

Baylor has offered a variety of services for students who find themselves "downstream," or in need of resources, explained Jim Marsh, dean for student health and wellness. HealthyBearsTXT is one way to get "midstream and try to influence the entire culture."

Advertisement

Past research shows that young adults are likely to read text messages even if they don't necessarily agree with the content, said Jessica Ford, associate professor of communication at Baylor and one of the program leads. "The framework is there to provide a nudge in a text-based form," she said, which can encourage behavioral change.

How it works: HealthyBearsTXT is modeled on a similar project at the University of Texas at Austin, HealthyhornsTXT. Students opt in to the two-way text stream and receive two to three messages each week about health topics, many tailored to the time of year and the academic calendar. For example, later in the fall, HealthyBearsTXT will distribute messages about flu shots.

Most students hear about HealthyBearsTXT during orientation, but faculty and staff are also encouraged to distribute the sign-up QR code in the classroom or on digital displays around campus. Monthly giveaways, like Chick-fil-A gift cards, also incentivize students to sign up.

Advertisement

To figure out their messaging strategy, campus leaders met with groups of faculty and staff who work in health promotion or health research fields to understand the underlying needs of students and determine what evidence-based practices can address those needs. They received input from 66 faculty and staff members from a variety of disciplines and departments, including neuroscience, intercultural affairs, sociology and campus recreation.

Ultimately, staff at the private Christian university established eight topic areas for messaging: sleep, spiritual wellness and faith formation, resilience, health and risk, physical activity and exercise, nutrition, healthy relationships, and anxiety.

Editor's Picks

• Shutdown Headaches for University Researchers
• Spending Soars, Rankings Fall at New College of Florida
• Vanderbilt Eyes National Expansion

"It's not just resource based; it's also encouraging students to reach out of their comfort zone, to say hi to somebody else, to stay connected to people that care about them," Ford said.

After collecting faculty and staff members' insights, Ford and Marsh passed the information along to students in the Department of Communication to write the text messages.

"We would say, 'Here is some of the wisdom that we want to distill. We want it to sound like the voice is a student voice, not like your parents telling you to get more sleep,'" Ford explained.

Administrators piloted the student-written texts with peers to ensure they were helpful and effective before officially launching the text campaign this fall.

HealthyBearsTXT uses Mosio to distribute texts. The program received funding from the Parent Advisory Council to kick-start the initiative and pay for a grad student researcher.

Measuring impact: The project reaches nearly 1,000 campus members each week, primarily students but also some faculty and staff.

"I think we've generated interest at this point," Marsh said. "Anecdotally, it's like they're waiting now on the next text message."

Some recipients text back. Ford said she was surprised by the number of like or love reactions students have sent. "Somebody said, 'Thanks, this encouraged me,'" she recalled.

HealthyBearsTXT has also served as a way to unite experts across campus who may not have otherwise crossed paths and to distribute their expertise to the campus community.

"We joke about it-it was a lot of fun if you're like us and you like to sit with people who are experts and hear them talk," Marsh said.

At the end of the term, Ford hopes to research the messages' effectiveness and memorability, evaluating which texts students remember or acted on and how they may have cultivated conversations in their daily lives. Going forward, Marsh also wants to send health promotion texts to graduate students, who have unique challenges compared to their undergraduate peers.

straight to your inboxSubscribe to a Newsletter