Pilot/Feasibility Study of a Text Messaging Campaign for Gulf Coast Commercial Fishers

The pilot and feasibility study of text messaging for Gulf Coast fishers is funded by the SW Ag Center. 

With a fatality rate 29 times higher than the national average, commercial fishing is one of the most dangerous industries in the US; especially true for the Gulf of Mexico, which ranks as one of the most vulnerable regions to experience falls overboard. Despite these statistics, commercial fishers are a woefully understudied population. Thus, there is a critical need for accessible, evidence-based interventions that improve safety and reduce injury for the well-being of these communities.

Although falls overboard, vessel disasters, and traumatic injuries are persistent concerns for commercial fishers, little is known about how to translate research findings to influence and improve maritime practice. To address the need for accessible and evidence-based interventions, we are creating a text messaging campaign that is based in the science and research on safety and injury prevention for commercial fishers.

The ubiquity of mobile devices and the success of text messaging campaigns to foster health literacy in other areas of social and behavioral health make text campaigns a promising source for health safety and injury prevention among commercial fishers. We conducted a literature review of fatal and non-fatal injury and injury prevention among Gulf Coast commercial fishers, including peer-reviewed research, reports, and trainings to identify safety and injury prevention initiatives and activities that can be condensed for a text campaign as well as create 36 text messages based on the literature review that promotes protective factors and decreases risk factors to prevent fatal and non-fatal fishing injuries in the Gulf of Mexico. We use rigorous analysis to study the complex factors that contribute to the adverse health outcomes of fishers and create jargon-free text messages that advance safety and safety training for fishers.