Authors (including presenting author) :
Ng HW(1), Choy HK(2), Wong KK (1),Hui WH(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Vascular Division, Department of Surgery , Tuen Mun Hospital (2)RN, BSc, MSSc, MSc
Introduction :
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a circulatory disease which associated with narrowing of arteries in the lower limbs. It is also a common atherosclerotic vascular disease affecting 3-12% of the global population [1]. With aging of the global population and increasing industrialization, PAD is expected to increase further in the next few decades. Worse of all, PAD increases risk of coronary, cerebrovascular complication including death [2]. So secondary prevention is essential for patients with PAD especially after revascularization.
Objectives :
This single-blinded randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the message-based rehabilitation on cardiometabolic risk factors, ankle-brachial index, toe-brachial index, and quality of life for PAD patients who had received revascularization.
Methodology :
This is a 24-week randomized controlled trial with a mobile phone text messages intervention (INT) and placebo control (CON) for pre and post test between group evaluation Selection Criteria: Aged 50 years or above; Medical record of peripheral artery disease with revascularization done; Have own mobile phone that can receive short messages; Able to read and understand Chinese. Intervention Group: Received a total 96 lifestyle modification mobile phone text messages for PAD rehabilitation and a lifestyle modification booklet. Control Group: Received a lifestyle modification booklet.
Result & Outcome :
A total of 81 eligible participants were enrolled and randomized to either INT (n=42) or CON (n=39) groups. Excluding outliers and participants lost to follow-up, 75 participants (INT, n = 40; CON, n=35) completed the study and the follow-up visit at week 24. Paired samples T-Test analysis indicated that there was no statistically significant improvement in Toe Brachial Index (TBI) (Rt TBI P= 0.75) (Lt TBI P= 0.09) between baseline and six months follow up for control group. In contrast, the intervention group showed statistically significant improvement in Toe Brachial Index (TBI) (Rt TBI P= 0.00) (Lt TBI P< 0.00). Compared with the control group, the intervention group also showed greater clinical improvement in overall health related quality of life and biochemical blood test such as fasting glucose (FG), total cholesterol(TC), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. Conclusion : The 24-week mobile phone text message-based lifestyle intervention was feasible and acceptable by the patients for PAD rehabilitation. There was preliminary evidence of effectiveness in improving Ankle-brachial Index, Toe-brachial Index, and biochemical blood test (Fasting glucose level, fasting total cholesterol level and low-density lipoprotein level).
