Korean J Health Promot.  2014 Mar;14(1):1-8. 10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.1.1.

The Effectiveness of Short Term Mobile Phone Text Reminders in Improving Compliance among Hypertensive Patients

• Lee JA
• Kim WS
• Bae MJ
• Kim YS
• Oh HJ
• Lee SY
• Kim CM
• Shin DH
• Han SH
• Cho KH

• KMID: 2305045
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2014.14.1.1

Abstract

BACKGROUND
For the effective management of hypertension, drug adherence and life style modification are important. We investigated the effects of mobile phone text-message reminders on compliance and life style modification in patients with hypertension.
METHODS
The study was performed at family medicine outpatient clinics at 15 hospitals in South Korea from July 2008 to June 2010. Study subjects included 1,449 patients who were all prescribed candesartan cilexetil. Patients were randomly divided into two groups- mobile phone text-message reminder group and control group. In the reminder group, contents of text messages were recommendations for antihypertensive adherence, exercise, low salt diet, and reduction of weight and alcohol. In the control group, the date of next visit was sent at 10 week. Mobile phone text-messages were sent at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks by the coordinating center. Thereafter, they were followed up for 12 weeks. Chi-square test was performed to compare compliance and performance indexes of the two groups.
RESULTS
The reminder group had 719 (49.6%) patients vs. 730 (50.4%) patients in the control group. Attendance rate were 92.8% for the reminder group and 94.7% for the control group (P=0.14). 94.7% of the reminder group and 94.0% of the control group took their medication regularly (P=0.59). The target blood pressure was attained in 75.8% of the reminder group and 75.4% of the control group (P=0.87). Similarly, rates of weight loss, decreased alcohol use, increased physical activity and a low salt diet showed no significant differences between the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study, mobile phone text reminders did not show to have any significant positive effect on the management of hypertension.

Keyword

Hypertension; Compliance; Mobile phone text message

MeSH Terms

Ambulatory Care Facilities
Blood Pressure
Cellular Phone*
Compliance*
Diet
Humans
Hypertension
Korea
Life Style
Motor Activity
Text Messaging
Weight Loss

Figure

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  Figure 1. General scheme of the study.

Reference

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