Lifestyle Online Intervention On Eating Behaviour and Body Mass Index On Obese Hypertensive Adults

Hypertension incidence and overweight or obesity related, constitute a worrying public health problem nowadays. Evidence indicates that, despite the existence of several factors involved in their etiology, diet and physical activity play a particularly important role in the treatment and prevention of obesity and associated disorders. However, interventions for the treatment of obesity encounter some environmental and personal barriers, specifically problems or deficits in motivation. These barriers sometimes make it difficult to implement intervention strategies. In this sense, there is an important agreement about the need to generate alternatives and strategies which promote intrinsic motivation, self-regulation and self-efficacy as fundamental variables which have a direct relationship with the adherence and success of obesity treatments. To achieve this, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are a very promising alternative, as they can provide personalised feedback and can be flexibly adapted to each user. In addition, ICTs also present other important advantages, especially their excellent cost-benefit ratio, and the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the interventions, since they allow to reach a greater number of users at a lower cost.

Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effects of a 3 months duration self-applied online program, composed of 9 modules focused on promoting healthy lifestyle habits (healthy eating and increased physical activity), on obese or overweight adults with hypertension. Participants will be recruited from a hypertension unit of a public hospital. These patients will be randomized allocated into two interventional groups: experimental group will receive audiovisual instructions from their hypertension specialist doctor, and the control group from a doctor outside the patient. Assessment will include: body composition (BMI), blood pressure, and eating behaviour.