이정아1, 김우상1, 배문정1, 김영식1, 오한진2, 이상엽3, 김철민4, 신동혁5, 한성호6, 조경환7

1울산대학교 의과대학 서울아산병원 가정의학과, 2관동대학교 의과대학 가정의학교실, 3부산대학교 의과대학 양산부산대학교병원 가정의학과, 4가톨릭대학교 의과대학 서울성모병원 가정의학과, 5연세대학교 의과대학 가정의학교실, 6동아대학교 의과대학 가정의학교실, 7고려대학교 안암병원 가정의학과

Background: For the effective management of hypertension, drug adherence and life style modification are
important. We investigated the effects of mobile phone text‐message reminders on compliance and life style
modification in patients with hypertension.
Methods: The study was performed at family medicine outpatient clinics at 15 hospitals in South Korea from
July 2008 to June 2010. Study subjects included 1,449 patients who were all prescribed candesartan cilexetil.
Patients were randomly divided into two groups‐ mobile phone text‐message reminder group and control group.
In the reminder group, contents of text messages were recommendations for antihypertensive adherence, exercise,
low salt diet, and reduction of weight and alcohol. In the control group, the date of next visit was sent at
10 week. Mobile phone text-messages were sent at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks by the coordinating center.
Thereafter, they were followed up for 12 weeks. Chi-square test was performed to compare compliance and performance
indexes of the two groups.
Results: The reminder group had 719 (49.6%) patients vs. 730 (50.4%) patients in the control group. Attendance
rate were 92.8% for the reminder group and 94.7% for the control group (P=0.14). 94.7% of the reminder group and
94.0% of the control group took their medication regularly (P=0.59). The target blood pressure was attained in
75.8% of the reminder group and 75.4% of the control group (P=0.87). Similarly, rates of weight loss, decreased alcohol
use, increased physical activity and a low salt diet showed no significant differences between the two groups.
Conclusions: In our study, mobile phone text reminders did not show to have any significant positive effect on
the management of hypertension.
Korean J Health Promot 2014;14(1):1-8
Keywords: Hypertension, Compliance, Mobile phone text message