Objective To explore the application of WeChat software in the follow-up of patients with primary hypertension. Methods Seventy-two patients with primary hypertension treated between June and December 2014 were randomly divided into two groups, WeChat group and phone group, with 36 in each. The patients in both the two groups were followed up once a week for three months. We recorded patients’ blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index (BMI), assessed their life style, and compared follow-up time, rate of readmission, satisfaction degree, medication compliance and follow-up loss rate between the two groups. Results There were no significant differences in blood pressure, heart rate and BMI between the two groups (P>0.05). At the end of the follow-up, there were no significant differences in blood pressure, heart rate, BMI, salt-intake compliance, medicine-intake compliance, patient satisfaction, follow-up loss rate, and readmission rate between the two groups (P>0.05), but patients in the WeChat group were less than those in the Phone group in terms of average weekly smoking, alcohol consumption, and follow-up time (P<0.05), and were better in terms of average weekly sport-time (P<0.05). Conclusion The application of WeChat software for follow-up in patients with primary hypertension can effectively improve the patients’ life style and follow-up efficiency.
Objective To investigate the present situation and effect of public health education based on WeChat platform in a first class of the third grade hospital in Sichuan province. Methods We designed the patient/relative health education questionnaire by literature reading and analysis, and expert consultancy. Then according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, from April to December 2015, the questionnaire was used to investigate inpatients and their relatives in departments within the WeChat platform including the Department of Endocrinology, International Health Care Center, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery, and Department of Dermatovenereology. Results There were 5 WeChat public accounts in the hospital, and the average running days was 177.2, the average number of subscription was 2 974, and the average number of pushed messages was 30. A total of 289 patients/relatives were surveyed, among whom 137 subscribed to the WeChat public account. The investigation results showed that 54.02% of the responders were university or college graduates, most of whom had stable jobs (civil servants: 12.41%, factory workers: 13.87%, medical staff: 9.49%, teachers: 7.30%, IT workers: 6.57%), and had a longer disease course averaging 4.5 years. Among the respondents, 87.59% came to know the WeChat public account through the publicity work by the hospital departments where they stayed, 30.66% thought it was very helpful and 63.50% considered it to be useful, and 47.45% read WeChat messages every day. They admitted that it was convenient and could be found at any time (63.50%, 66.42%), but the drawback was online communication with health educators was not integrated in the platform (54.74%). Conclusions Health education WeChat platform is effective to give health education to the patients and their relatives, but there are also some shortcomings. More functions should be integrated in order to provide comprehensive health education knowledge to the patients.