mHealth Interventions for Lifestyle and Risk Factor Modification in Coronary Heart Disease: Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Self-management of lifestyle and cardiovascular disease risk factors is challenging in older patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). SMS text messaging could be a potential support tool for self-management and the most affordable and accessible method through a mobile phone. High-quality evidence had been lacking, and previous studies evaluated the effects of SMS text messaging on the subjective measures of short-term outcomes. Recently, a large-sized randomized controlled trial in Australia reported promising findings on the objective measures upon 6-month follow-up. However, an examination of the effectiveness of such interventions in an Asian population with unique demographic characteristics would be worthwhile.

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of a 1-way SMS text messaging program to modify the lifestyle and cardiovascular disease risk factors of patients who underwent the first percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods: A parallel, single-blinded, 1:1 random allocation clinical trial was conducted with 879 patients treated through PCI. They were recruited during hospital admission from April 2017 to May 2020 at 2 university hospitals in the Republic of Korea. In addition to standard care, the intervention group received access to a supporting website and 4 SMS text messages per week for 6 months regarding a healthy diet, physical activity, smoking cessation, and cardiovascular health. Random allocation upon study enrollment and SMS text messaging after hospital discharge were performed automatically using a computer program. The coprimary outcomes were low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and BMI. The secondary outcomes were change in lifestyle and adherence to the recommended health behaviors.

Results: Of the eligible population, 440 and 439 patients who underwent PCI were assigned to the intervention and control groups, respectively. The 1-way SMS text messaging program significantly enhanced physical activity (P=.02), healthy diet (P<.01), and medication adherence (P<.04) among patients with CHD. Hence, more people were likely to control their cardiovascular disease risk factors per the recommendations. The intervention group was more likely to control all 5 risk factors by 62% (relative risk 1.62, 95% CI 1.05-2.50) per the recommendations. On the other hand, physiological measures of the primary outcomes, including LDL-C levels, SBP, and BMI, were not significant. Most participants found the SMS text messaging program useful and helpful in motivating lifestyle changes.

Conclusions: Lifestyle-focused SMS text messages were effective in the self-management of a healthy diet, exercise, and medication adherence, but their influence on the physiological measures was not significant. One-way SMS text messages can be used as an affordable adjuvant method for lifestyle modification to help prevent the recurrence of cardiovascular disease.

Trial registration: Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS) KCT0005087; https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do/19282.

Keywords: coronary heart disease; lifestyle modification; mHealth; mobile health; prevention; text message.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of the randomized controlled trial. LDL-C: low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, SBP: systolic blood pressure.

Figure 2

Subgroup analysis of the primary outcomes. LDL-C: low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol.

Figure 3

Subgroup analysis of the secondary outcomes: physical activity, fruit/vegetable intake, and medication adherence. LDL-C: low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol.