Paired mean differences in TC, HDLC and TC/HDLC levels in healthy overweight people receiving and not receiving an SMS communication within a year

Introduction

Primary care still needs an effective way tocommunicate and motivate overweight and obese individuals to bring lifestylebehavioural changes prior to an apparent disease, and use of short messagesystem (SMS) for such communication could be a time and lifesaving tool.

Objective

To find out, if there are any weight,  total cholesterol (TC), high densitylipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) and  TC/HDLCratio changes within a year after communicating and not communicating via SMStwice a month with healthy overweight people

 

Methods:

A prospective observational study in Riga, Latvia included119 clinically healthy individuals  having body mass index ≥25 m²/kgand below 40 m²/kg and in age group 30-45 that visited primary carephysician. Individuals were tested and consulted on their dyslipidaemia testresults and were advised to start lifestyle changes to improve lipid levels, aswell as to decrease weight by at least 5 % within one year. 87 participantswere randomly selected to receive SMS twice a month from family physician. Usinga paired t test, we estimated paired mean differences in weight, TC, HDLC andTC/HDLC ratio all included individuals and separately in both groups: those receivingSMS (n=87) and not receiving SMS (n=32).

 

Results

A statistically significant paired mean difference wasobserved only regarding TC/HDLC ratio reduction in the whole group – peoplereceiving and not receiving SMS (0.15, 95% CI 0.05, 0.25; p=0.004). Splittingthe data in two groups - receiving or not receiving SMS, we found statisticallysignificant paired mean difference in TC/HCDLC levels only in the group that receivedSMS (0.12, 95% CI 0.01, 0.23; p=0.033).

 

We did not observe any statistically significantpaired mean differences in TC and HDLC levels, as well as in weight.

 

Conclusions

Our study showed there is statisticallysignificant decrease in TC/HDLC ratio levels after one year in clinicallyhealthy overweight and obese individuals residing in Riga, Latvia, receivingSMS communication twice a month, even without significant paired meandifferences in TC, HDLC and in weight.