BackgroundPoor adherence to lifestyle interventions and medication-taking is problematic, and there is some evidence that a diary may be useful in facilitating patients’ adherence to lifestyle modification in chronic disease.ObjectivesTo compare changes in blood pressure, waist–hip ratio, body mass index, blood levels and exercise capacity between two experimental groups and one control group (CG) after a six month intervention, and at a further three month follow up.MethodThis was a longitudinal randomised control trial. All three groups underwent usual treatment. In addition, Experimental group one (EG1) received the diary as well as a once-a-month telephone call and Experimental group two (EG2) received only a once-a-month telephone call. Changes in measurements were established using an ANCOVA. The significance of the study was set at p = 0.05.ResultsThe added intervention of the diary had no direct effect on blood pressure change greater than that achieved by the appropriate medication. All three groups showed a clinically significant drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure to accepted norms. There were marginal differences in EG1 for waist–hip ratios (p = 0.06) at six months. There were significant low density lipoprotein (LDL) reductions in both EG1 and EG2 at nine months compared with the CG (p = 0.02) Walking distances improved minimally in both EG1 and EG2.ConclusionThe diary and telephone interventions showed some positive trends toward improvements in risk factors of patients with chronic hypertension.
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