Effectiveness of an mHealth application on remote monitoring and self-management of persons with hypertension in a coastal taluk of Udupi district: A study protocol

Background: Hypertension is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, a major cause of death and disability globally. There is increasing evidence that demonstrates clinically relevant benefits from self-monitoring and self-management of blood pressure. Evidence suggests a reduction of systolic BP by 3.2 mm/hg through self-monitoring. The use of mHealth applications in health care monitoring and self-management can help in the timely delivery of health information. Around 33% of Indians use mHealth applications in their daily life. However, well-designed, user complied mHealth applications are essential to reach the masses and to be effective. A previously conducted study in India demonstrated that applications are not customized according to users' needs and expectations and lacked usability assessment by patients. Therefore, we aimed to develop and test a novel mHealth application on remote monitoring and self-management in hypertension. Methods: The study will be carried out in three phases. The first phase will be an in-depth interview to identify the required parameters to develop a customized mHealth android-based application to monitor hypertension. The second phase is to develop the customized application through the Agile development design using the android studio platform. In the third phase, a community-based cluster randomized trial will be carried out to assess the effectiveness of the mHealth intervention on the remote monitoring and self-management of people with hypertension. A sample of 236 people from 12 villages will be randomized and the mHealth application will be delivered to the intervention group and the standard regimen will be continued in the control group. Results: In the proposed study if the intervention is found to be helpful, then hypertension patients in the community can be encouraged to install the mHealth application. This application, if found effective can improve the health status, knowledge, and self-care approach among hypertensive patients. Registration: CTR India (http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/pmaindet2.php?trialid=67026&EncHid=&userName=CTRI/2022/03/041544 CTRI/2022/03/041544).