Health Education Using Text Messaging Prevents Hypertension in High Risk People: a Comparison Between Effectiveness of Electronic Text Messaging and Printed Material

Prehypertension is a predisposing condition for morbidity in hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. This has been defined as a systolic pressure from 120 to 139 mmHg or a diastolic pressure of 80-89 mm hg. The prevalence of this condition estimated to be at least 2 times higher than hypertension and those who have prehypertension 4 times more likely to progress to hypertension than normotensive people. Although, hypertension is a multi-factorial disease, lifestyle is associated mainly to its development. According to information, lifestyle changes may prevent more than 70% of primary hypertension and health education is a key strategy to promote lifestyle modification. Health education via electronic pathways such as mobile text messaging or virtual communities may provide more availability and adherence than printed media. Regarding lower costs of such electronic resources and continuity of interventions through these ways, assessing their effectiveness compared to a printed material may help health educators to choose proper methods for improve their educational attempts. Therefore, the current study aims to compare different tools for health education about healthy lifestyle in people with prehypertension. For this, educational interventions with similar content among 3 groups of people will be conducted (i.e., first group via mobile text messaging, second group using virtual communities, and third group by brochures as a printed media). A control group also will be considered without any intervention. Several phases are considered in the study. In phase 1 using health centers located in Qazvin city, people would be invited to a free screening program of prehypertension. Then, an eligible sample will be divided in three groups using a random allocation process (each one including 100-150 people with prehypertension). The blood pressure and health promotion lifestyle profile II (HPLP II) will be measured before intervention. A standard educational content using approaches of lifestyle promotion defined in HPLP II would be available for intervention groups during a time period of 1 month concurrently. At final phase, one month after termination of intervention blood pressure as primary outcome and lifestyle changes along with self-efficacy for lifestyle modification as secondary outcomes will be measured. This study may suggest effective ways for health education which is applicable by health care professionals to promote health status among people at risk of hypertension.