Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 12, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 15, 2019 - May 10, 2019
Date Accepted: Mar 22, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
A Mobile Health Coaching Intervention for Controlling Hypertension: Single-Arm Pilot Pre-Post Study
Background:
The seminal Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension (DASH) study demonstrated the effectiveness of diet to control hypertension; however, the effective implementation and dissemination of its principles have been limited.
Objective:
This study aimed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a DASH mobile health intervention. We hypothesized that combining Bluetooth-enabled data collection, social networks, and a human coach with a smartphone DASH app (DASH Mobile) would be an effective medium for the delivery of the DASH program.
Methods:
We conducted a single-arm pilot study from August 2015 through August 2016, using a pre-post evaluation design to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a smartphone version of DASH that incorporated a human health coach. Participants were recruited both online and offline.
Results:
A total of 17 patients participated in this study; they had a mean age of 59 years (SD 6) and 10 (60%) were women. Participants were engaged with the app; in the 120 days of the study, the mean number of logged blood pressure measurements was 63 (SD 46), the mean number of recorded weight measurements was 52 (SD 45), and participants recorded a mean of 55 step counts (SD 36). Coaching phone calls had a high completion rate (74/102, 73%). The mean number of servings documented per patient for the dietary assessment was 709 (SD 541), and patients set a mean number of 5 (SD 2) goals. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, weight, body mass index, and step count did not significantly change over time (P>.10 for all parameters).
Conclusions:
In this pilot study, we found that participants were engaged with an interactive mobile app that promoted healthy behaviors to treat hypertension. We did not find a difference in the physiological outcomes, but were underpowered to identify such changes.
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