Retail Outlet Health Kiosk Hypertension Trial
Condition: Hypertension
MeSH terms: Hypertension
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The investigators propose to conduct pilot studies to support an application to conduct a
      fully powered randomized trial of a text messaging intervention to increase the rate of blood
      pressure control, defined as <140/90 mmHg, among hypertensive individuals using health kiosk
      blood pressure devices. These pilot studies will include testing of the intervention,
      recruitment, enrollment, and data collection procedures, and of the web-based interactions
      between the data coordinating center and higi Sh llc (Chicago, IL), which is the company that
      installs and maintains the health care kiosks and associated software infrastructure.
      Completion of these pilot studies will provide preliminary data to support an application for
      a full scale randomized controlled study. Potential for adaption is high because of alignment
      of retail outlets, kiosk providers, and consumers for health, wellness, and self-care.
    

Detailed description: 
      Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in the U.S. as well as the
      leading cause of health care cost. Hypertension is the leading remediable risk factor for CVD
      in the U.S. and globally, with prevalence of 29% in U.S. adults. Recent data from NHANES
      indicate that blood pressure (BP) is not controlled, defined as <140/90 mmHg, in 48% of
      individuals in the U.S. with hypertension. Strategies to improve hypertension control have
      focused on the physician-patient interaction at the office visit, system factors in the
      health care provider system, and extension beyond the traditionally defined health care
      system. All have had some success but are limited by not reaching individuals outside the
      clinical encounter or by challenges of scale, scope, and standardization of blood pressure
      measurement outside the clinical setting. Retail outlet BP devices have the potential to
      address these limitations by providing free BP measurements to individuals outside the
      clinical setting and at all times the retail outlet is open. These automated devices are
      standardized and linked to software with the ability to collect data and provide information
      to individuals using these devices, thereby providing a platform for an intervention
      strategy. Higi is a privately owned company that provides health kiosks in retail outlets.
      Higi presently has 10,800 kiosks in the U.S. with 4,125 in Rite Aid pharmacies. More than 44
      million BP measurements per year are obtained at higi kiosks. In the one-year period 7/1/15
      to 6/30/16, approximately 727,000 individuals using higi kiosks recorded >3 systolic BP
      measurements >140/90 mmHg. The investigators propose to target this group using interactive
      text messaging to activate individuals to take actions to improve BP control. The primary
      endpoint will be BP control defined as <140/90 mmHg at 12 months post randomization.
    

Intervention name(s): Text messages
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Subjects randomized to intervention will receive text messages to promote seeking care and improving compliance with blood pressure treatment.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Text messaging