Development and Adaptation of Bilingual Health Text Message Databases for Health Interventions in Hispanic Communities: Protocol for a Scoping Review

BACKGROUND: SMS text messages have been used as part of health intervention research for over a quarter of a century. Given the ease of reaching people via SMS text message, these interventions are important for all groups, including Hispanic individuals. SMS text messaging interventions continue to show promise for improving health in this population. Several reviews have addressed aspects of designing Hispanic-focused digital health interventions. Emphasis has been placed on the linguistic and cultural relevance of SMS text messages in these studies. However, a gap exists in the literature on how SMS text messages are developed and adapted for use in health interventions with Hispanic communities across the life span. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this scoping review is to answer the following question: how are bilingual SMS text message databases developed and/or adapted for use in health interventions for the Hispanic population in the United States? METHODS: In this scoping review, the framework by Arksey and O'Malley and the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines will be used. The review will be conducted in five stages: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) study selection; (4) charting the data; and (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. For the inclusion criteria, the population (Hispanic individuals across the life span), concept (development and/or adaptation of bilingual SMS text message databases for health interventions), and context (the United States) framework will be used. There is no age or time limit on the study populations or included articles. In May 2025, we searched 4 databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Covidence is being used to collect studies. There are 2 phases, each involving 2 independent reviewers: the title and abstract phase followed by the full-text review phase. One of the authors developed a data extraction tool with 4 sections. These sections include general study information, foundational SMS text message database information, how the development and adaptation of the SMS text message database were informed, and data on cultural and linguistic elements of the database. Each section will be presented in tabular format, with descriptive and numerical summaries. Inductive thematic analysis will be used for the fourth section. RESULTS: This scoping review commenced in May 2025, and titles and abstracts are being reviewed to assess further eligibility. After the full-text review, a determination will be made on which studies to include, and data extraction and results will be documented. We anticipate that this review will be completed by December 2026. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review of the cultural and linguistic elements of SMS text message databases may contribute to the development of more meaningful and concordant databases for use in health interventions among the Hispanic population. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/86032.