Effect of an information technology integrated health education program on blood pressure level of adults with uncontrolled hypertension in a private hospital in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, hypertension ranks third as a major risk factor that is associated with national disease burden. Though there are a number of studies done on the effects of a multi-faceted health education on behavior changes in uncontrolled hypertension patients (to decrease blood pressure or BP), few had been done in private hospitals, with utilization of social media, and none had been done using the combination of lectures, animations, info-graphics and LINE in Bangkok, Thailand. The study objective is to evaluate the effect of the Information Technology Integrated Health Education program (ITIHEP) on the BP of uncontrolled hypertension patients in a private hospital in Bangkok.

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in a private hospital in Bangkok. 68 participants with uncontrolled hypertension were divided evenly into the intervention and control group. Patients in both groups would receive standard medical care. Intervention group participants would also receive the ITIHEP, which includes health education with animations, info-graphics, and the use of IT-component of LINE to promote behavior changes for hypertension control and ultimately improve BP. BP would be tracked using automatic blood pressure monitor. Data were analyzed in SPSS 17.0 using descriptive statistics, unpaired t-test, Chi-Square Test, Fisher’s Exact test, Repeated-Measures ANOVA, and post-hoc test.

Analysis shows that there were significant differences of SBP between intervention and control group (P ≤ .001). There are no significant differences between the control and intervention groups for DBP (P = .011), but post-hoc test suggests that both groups experienced decrease in DBP, but at the same level, reaching the realms of normal DBP of 80  mmHg. The ITIHEP tends to be beneficial in helping patients with uncontrolled hypertension to considerably increase their rate of decrease in BP compared to when receiving only standard medical care.