Abstract
Long-term effects of blood pressure (BP) reduction and habits improvement on new behavioral BP control program (KenkoutatsujinTM) users were examined. Educational contents of this 1 month program included booklet, self-assessment of habits, goal-setting for behavioral changes and self-monitoring of home BP and target behaviors. The program consisted of twice interactive letter-communications including personal advices on treatment needs and behavior modification. These advices were computer-tailored based on a participant's response on the questionnaire. The follow-up questionnaire survey was conducted for 224 participants 10 months later. One hundred twenty seven subjects (93 males: 63.2 years, 34 females: 60.1 years) out of 197 participants (response rate: 87.9%) were analyzed, excluding 56 participants whose antihypertensive medication were changed and 14 whose data were incomplete. The home BP was significantly decreased from baseline (142.5/86.0 mmHg) to post-intervention (136.0/82.1 mmHg) by -6.4/-3.9 mmHg, and maintained to follow-up (136.6/82.8 mmHg). The BP reduction was -8.7/-5.5 mmHg at post-intervention, and -8.8/-5.3 mmHg at follow up in hypertensive subjects whose home BP was equal to or higher than 135/80 mmHg (n=100). Fifteen lifestyles (8 eating habits, 4 exercise, etc) were improved at post-intervention, and the 9 improved habits were maintained for 10 months. These results suggest that the program is useful for lifestyle modification and BP control.
