Mobile phone text-messaging interventions aimed to prevent cardiovascular diseases (Text2PreventCVD): systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis

Background A variety of small mobile phone text messaging interventions have indicated improvement in risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Yet the extent of this improvement and whether it impacts multiple risk factors together is uncertain. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis to investigate the effects of text-messaging interventions for CVD prevention. Methods Electronic databases were searched to identify trials investigating a text-messaging intervention focusing on CVD prevention with the potential to modify at least two CVD risk factors in adults. The main outcome was blood pressure (BP). We conducted standard and IPD meta-analysis on pooled data. We accounted for clustering of patients within studies and the primary analysis used random-effects models. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed. Results Nine trials were included in the systematic review involving 3779 participants and 5 (n=2612) contributed data to the IPD meta-analysis. Standard metaanalysis showed that the weighted mean differences are as follows: systolic blood pressure (SBP), −4.13 mm Hg (95% CI −11.07 to 2.81, p