Life Blood pressure Monitors

The intervention group will receive training on self-measurement of blood pressure, health coaching on healthy diet, training for indoor exercise activities and the use of Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator. Participants in the control group will receive a BMI calculator and a pamphlet developed by the study team which includes brief information on hypertension, healthy diet and physical activity.

Residents of the selected community housings who were diagnosed as having (stage 1 to stage 3) hypertension by medical professionals will be recruited as participants for the study. The potential participants will be identified based on the household survey data which was carried out by the 'PARTNER' study team from the University of Malaya. This survey was a cross-sectional design and conducted between February to November 2012. Altogether, 833 households were recruited from total 4726 households of four Community Housing Projects by using simple random sampling method. From 833 households, 431 individuals with hypertension were identified.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria of the study are as follows.

Inclusion criteria

Adults aged 18 years and above will be eligible for the study if they have been diagnosed as having hypertension (stage 1 to 3) by medical professionals, Malaysian citizen, able to speak Malay (national language) or/and English, willing to participate in all aspects of the intervention and fit to do exercise. Participants who can do daily activities without limitations are defined as "Fit to do exercise". The potential participants will be screened by Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) whether they are fit to do exercise or need further consultation with physician.

Exclusion criteria

Residents who are pregnant, participants of other clinical trials or plan to leave the area before end of the study period will be excluded.

Sample size calculation and recruitment

The sample size was calculated by assuming p < 0.05 as the significance level, 80% power and 1 to 1 as the ratio of unexposed to expose in sample. The calculation was carried by using the OpenEpi version 2.3.1 . On the assumption of an SD of 15 mmHg and 30% drop out, a sample size of 160 participants per group is required to detect the effect size of systolic blood pressure 5.4 mm Hg. The effect size used to calculate the sample size was based onthe result of a previous similar study.

Universal sampling method will be used to recruit the study participants. The 431 residents of the selected community housing complexes who were diagnosed as (stage 1 to 3) hypertension will be invited to the study. We will take all participants which fit with inclusion criteria and willing to participate to the study so that actual participants may be more than calculated sample size.

Intervention

The intervention is developed based on Social Cognitive Theory which includes social support, self-regulation and self-efficacy . There will be three main components in the intervention i) Peer support for home blood pressure monitoring, ii) Face to face health coaching on healthy diet iii) Demonstration and training for indoor home based exercise activities.

Peer support groups, consisting of five persons per group will be formed based on the proximity of the residences. An Omron digital blood pressure monitor (HEM-7111) will be distributed to each group and participants will be trained by a state registered nurse on how to measure blood pressure and record the blood pressure reading in a log book.