The effect of interactive text message follow-up on health promoting lifestyle of patients with acute coronary syndrome

Background: Lifestyle modification is an essential factor in the promotion of health in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). One of the interventions to promote lifestyle is interactive follow-up, which, according to the traditional methods, requires spending significant amount of time and cost. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of interactive text message follow-up on health promoting lifestyle of patients with ACS. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial among 100 patients suffering from ACS during October–February 2016. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Collection of data on lifestyle was performed before, 3, and 4 months after the beginning of the intervention using Walker's Health Promoting lifestyle questionnaire. Six messages were sent to the intervention groups each week, and participants asked the questions by sending text message, each week 1 message were sent to the control group for 12 weeks. The statistical analysis of data was performed using independent t-test, Chi-square, Mann–Whitney U test, and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the mean score of lifestyle of the two groups, however, 3 months and 4 months after the beginning of the intervention, the mean score of lifestyle in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The interactive text message follow-up is effective in promoting the lifestyle of patients with ACS and can be considered in the planning of follow-up of patients with ACS.