Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and death worldwide, and it can be treated. But many people with hypertension still do not reach healthy blood pressure levels. This trial tests whether a low-cost text message program can help adults with newly diagnosed hypertension reach blood pressure control in routine primary care.
The trial is multicenter and cluster randomized. Researchers randomly assigned whole primary care clinics, rather than individual participants, to the text message program or usual care. Clinics were assigned in a 2:1 ratio, so twice as many clinics offered the text message program as usual care. Participants were followed for 6 months.
Blood pressure control was the main focus because it is the clinical goal of hypertension treatment. The trial also looked at several other measures of how participants did on treatment. These include blood pressure control at an earlier point (9 weeks), how long participants stayed on their medicine, whether treatment worked or failed, how many participants dropped out of follow-up, and deaths.
Because participants in the same clinic may have similar outcomes, the analysis accounts for clustering by clinic.
