Texting Away Cholesterol
When it comes to chronic disease, quite often we find the most difficulty not in correcting the pathophysiology of the condition, but in motivating the patient to make real lifestyle changes. Many different forms of education have been tried, some with more success than others, but from what I’ve seen I think that there is a lot to be said for consistency and reaching patients in their daily lives. The article I chose, Text Reminders Help People Lower Blood Pressure, Cholesterol (Shallcross, 2015) demonstrates the power that even simple consistency can have. Today there are hundreds if not thousands of health oriented apps, but most of them require a smartphone and some degree of tech saviness. This article discusses a study recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. In this single-blind randomized clinical trial, 710 patients with coronary heart disease were divided into a control (n=358) and intervention group (n=352) (Chow et al., 2015). Each group received the same medical care, but the intervention group also received 4 non-interactive text messages a week focused on education, advice, support, and motivation (Chow et al., 2015). After six months, the intervention group had significant decreases in LDL, SBP, BMI, smoking, and significant increases in activity (Chow et al., 2015).
I find this impressive and exciting. These results are an important reminder that when is comes to patient education, sometimes keeping technology simpler is better. Another important aspect of this model is that text messages are accessible to many people, including those without smartphones. Even in developing countries many people have cell phones that can receive text messages, so this technology could conceivably be applied in such regions. I also appreciate the empowerment aspect of this work. No one was calling these patients to pressure them into changes, they received the messages and independently decided to ignore or take in and apply the content. All in all, I think this study is an important contribution to medicine and hope to see its implications acknowledged.
References
Shallcross, L. (2025). Text Reminders Help People Lower Blood Pressure. National Public Radio.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/22/442518139/text-
reminders-help-people-lower-their-heart-disease-risk
