Investigating Behavior Change Methods for the Management of Hypertension

Background: Hypertension has become one of the most common conditions in the world. Approximately 1.28 billion people suffer from this ailment. Change is required in the world of today to adopt more health-conscious practices to avoid further growth of the population suffering from this affliction. Objective: This project aims to promote general wellness using a mobile health intervention that incorporates health coaching to help manage hypertension. The mobile application (HyperCoach) does not intend to cure, mitigate, or prevent hypertension. Health coaching is a method designed to guide participants in attaining their health goals through active intervention providing them with educational content, reminders, goal-setting capabilities, and feedback. The educational content will be conducted by introducing the participant to the process of performing their body measurements properly (blood pressure and weight) and then through training through our designed phone application. Reminders will be sent if the participant has yet to complete their assigned tasks of the day. At the beginning of the study, participants will have the opportunity to establish their own personal health goals for blood pressure, resting heart rate, weight, and step count in HyperCoach. At the end of every week, participants will have the opportunity to have a progress report available to them to demonstrate their current trends regarding their weight, blood pressure, resting heart rate, and step count. The progress report will also allow users to change their current goals for more appropriate ones according to their health and knowledge development. The 40 participants will be provided with a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff and weight scale. The devices will be used alongside the participants' IOS phones to collect their blood pressure and weight readings through the use of the iPhone Application - HyperCoach. The application will provide the participants with American Heart Association (AHA) approved content in the form of flyers, messages, and videos. The application automatically saves the measurements of the participant as long as the application is open and Bluetooth is functional. The app will look at the readings of the participants and assess their status (green, yellow, orange, red) based on the algorithm provided by the AHA and provide a visual representation of the participant's health trends. References: All coaching content has been designed or selected with the input of one of our sponsors, the American Heart Association. Content that will be provided may be found on the American Heart Association website, Pennington Biomedical Research Center website(under Pennington Nutrition Series), and Harvard Health Publishing website. Also, some videos that will be shown to the participants may be found under the following Youtube Channels: American Heart Association, Sanitas, British Heart Foundation, and SabiasMass. These Youtube Channels cover relevant health coaching information that has been reviewed for inclusion. Questionnaires: All questionnaires will be performed through Qualtrics, except for the consent form, which will be signed through DocuSign. HyperCoach: The application will send daily reminders through phone notifications through the HyperCoach app to complete their measurement (weight and blood pressure), review educational material, and complete their knowledge assessments. The application only permits participants to track their health measurements and access educational content to improve their health. It is not providing any treatment options to the participant regarding their condition. The purpose is to allow them to know their current medical measurements (weight \& blood pressure) and provide health coaching to advise them on improving their health. Data Collection: Information about the participant will be stored in a locked file cabinet. Computer files are protected with a password. Participant contact information will be deleted after successful completion of this study. The clinical outcomes of the study are the following: * Average change in systolic BP * Average change in diastolic BP * % of change from baseline to follow-up * % of individuals changing from one hypertension classification to another * Average weight change * Quality of life (SF-36) * Changes in health beliefs * Change in hypertension health literacy * Level of engagement with the intervention The hypothesis is that those receiving health belief-tailored messaging and health coaching will have more significant changes in their beliefs, quality of life, and a higher level of engagement with the app as compared to the others. An Exit Interview will be conducted at the end of the study to take their feedback on the study. To differentiate between the two participant groups: The non-coaching group will only have access to the daily reminders and trend graphs for the duration of the study. Group Assignment: The participants will be assigned to their group according to the order they sign-up for the study. Every third person who registers for the study will be in the non-coaching group, and all others in the coaching group.