Investigating the Effect of Educational Text Messages on Self-Care in Hypertensive Patients in a Hypertension Clinic in Kerman

Self-care in chronic diseases implies the study and control of disease symptoms, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and daily functioning. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of educational text messages on self-care in hypertensive patients in one of the hypertension clinics in Kerman in 2020.

The statistical population of this quasi-experimental study included 316 patients with a history of hypertension, of whom 64 were selected as the sample of the study. Then, the selected participants were randomly assigned to two intervention and control groups each with 32 members. The self-care behavior questionnaire for hypertensive patients was used to collect data. Before the intervention, the questionnaires were completed by the participants. Then, educational text messages were sent to the intervention group for one month while the control group received no intervention. At the end of the training, all patients completed the questionnaires again. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 26).

The results showed that the mean score of self-care in the intervention group after the intervention (previous score being controlled) was 6.92 more than that of the control group, which was statistically significant (P-value <0.01). Thus, using mobile health (mHealth) had a greater impact on increasing self-care in patients with hypertension compared with the conventional self-care methods.

The results of this study indicated the efficiency of educational text messages in self-care of patients with hypertension. Therefore, it is a good choice to use mHealth technologies for providing health care.