Evaluating the Effect of Training through Short Message Service (SMS) on Compliance and the Mean Blood Pressure of Patients with Hypertension: A Study Design

The blood pressure has not been controlled in most of patients due to inappropriate treatment; and they suffer from the complications. To solve the problem, training through short message service (SMS) will be applied and this article is a report of designing the SMS-training approach for patients with hypertension. The current intervention is a randomized clinical trial implemented on patients with hypertension in Gorgab Center (Shahin-Shahr and Meyme town) subordinate to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Firstly, 110 patients will be chosen from the list of patients with hypertension using simple randomized method. Afterwards, the patients will be assigned in one of the intervention or control groups randomly by using random numbered table. Before intervention, all the patients will fill the compliance questionnaire and then, their blood pressures will be measured by caregivers. Patients in SMS group will be texting daily for one month containing a training text to motivate them to improve their life style and use medicine properly. Finally, after one and two months, blood pressure will be measured for all the patients again and the treatment adherence questionnaire will be filled. SMS can be applied as a training method to control hypertension.