Cellular phone and Internet-based individual intervention on blood pressure and obesity in obese patients with hypertension

Purpose: The present study evaluated whether an intervention using a short message service (SMS) by cellular phone and Internet would improve blood pressure, weight control, and serum lipids of obese patients with hypertension during 8 weeks. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental design with pre- and follow-up tests. Participants were recruited from the family medicine outpatient department of tertiary care hospital located in an urban city of South Korea. Twenty-eight patients were assigned to an intervention group and 21 to a control group. The goal of intervention was to bring blood pressure, body weight, and serum lipids levels close to normal ranges. Patients in the intervention group were requested to record their blood pressure and body weight in a weekly web based diary through the Internet or by cellular phones. The researchers sent optimal recommendations as an intervention to each patient, by both cellular phone and Internet weekly. The intervention was applied for 8 weeks. Results: Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressures (DBP) significantly decreased by 9.1 and 7.2 mmHg respectively at 8 weeks from the baseline in the intervention group (p < 0.05). However, after 8 weeks from the baseline both SBP and DBP in the control group had not changed significantly. Yet, There were significant mean decreases in body weight and waist circumference by 1.6 kg (p < 0.05) and 2.8 cm (p < 0.05) in the intervention group, respectively. In the control group increases in body weight and waist circumference (p < 0.05) mean changes were also significant. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) significantly increased, with a mean change of 3.7 mg/dl at 8 weeks from baseline in the intervention group (p < 0.05). The mean change of HDL-C in the control group was, however, not significant. Conclusion: During 8 weeks using this web-based intervention by way of cellular phone and Internet SMS improved blood pressure, body weight, waist circumference, and HDL-C in patients with obese hypertension. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.