MOBILE Intervention in College Students With Elevated Blood Pressure
Condition: Hypertension
MeSH terms: Hypertension
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The investigators' long-term goal is to develop tailored interventions to influence
      self-management behaviors in young adults with elevated blood pressure (BP). The
      investigators seek to test an intervention, mHealth to Optimize BP Improvement (MOBILE), that
      takes advantage of existing applications and our prior work to allow participants to (1)
      perform self-measured BP monitoring; (2) receive feedback from a cloud-based cardiovascular
      disease (CVD) detection platform; and (3) receive tailored text messages that encourage
      engagement in BP reduction behavior. mHealth technology provides an ideal way to deliver
      healthcare interventions to young adults. Text messaging is especially appealing to college
      students, more than 91% of whom use smartphones as their main communication device. For this
      study, the investigators will recruit 42 college students, ages 18 to 29, with elevated BP to
      participate in formative developmental project and then a 4-week two-armed trial of MOBILE.
      The aims of this study are:

      Aim 1. To refine the MOBILE intervention during a formative phase involving 8-10 students.
      Outcomes will include finalized motivation-level-tailored text messages designed to prompt
      behavior change and a self-administered motivational scale to be employed in the Aim 2 and
      Exploratory Aim study.

      Aim 2. To evaluate the feasibility of implementing the MOBILE intervention in 32 college
      students with elevated BP. The investigators will operationalize MOBILE feasibility as: (a)
      acceptability to participants, (b) participation rate, (c) texts delivered and opened, (d)
      fidelity to daily BP measurement protocol, (e) reported technical problems and challenges,
      and (f) recruitment and attrition rates.

      Exploratory Aim. To examine the preliminary impact of the MOBILE intervention on BP reduction
      (primary outcome) along with sodium intake and hypertension (HTN) knowledge improvement
      (secondary outcomes) among 32 college students with elevated BP. Hypothesis: The intervention
      group will have a significantly greater reduction in BP and sodium intake and greater
      increase in HTN knowledge from baseline to completion, compared to control group.
    

Detailed description: 
      The investigators seek to test an intervention, mHealth to Optimize BP Improvement (MOBILE),
      that takes advantage of existing applications and our prior work to allow participants to (1)
      perform self-measured BP monitoring; (2) receive feedback from a cloud-based CVD detection
      platform; and (3) receive tailored text messages that encourage engagement in BP reduction
      behavior. mHealth technology provides an ideal way to deliver healthcare interventions to
      young adults.
    

Intervention name(s): Intervention group was asked to take their BP daily and rate their motivation level and communicate with the research assistant. Their level will trigger the appropriate behavioral change SMS prompt.
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The investigators showed participants how to use the Health Mate app, upload Withings BP cuff readings, upload historical data to the cloud, read trend lines in their record, rank their daily motivational level, and answer a brief short message service (SMS) question about whether the participants completed the behavioral change task encouraged by the daily message. A one-page instruction sheet with the research team's contact information was provided. Participants were instructed to take their BP daily, before their first meal and encouraged to avoid prior alcohol and caffeine intake as well as physical activity. The participants were instructed to rate their motivational level as low, moderate, or high via SMS when transmitting their BP value. Their level will trigger the appropriate behavioral change SMS prompt.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Intervention group vs control group
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: mhealth; hypertension; college students; self-monitoring; lifestyle modifications