Key Facts:
- Randomised controlled trial run across 160 Australian GP clinics finds people are 15 times more likely to attend a Heart Health Check if prompted by their GP to do so.
- Australia's Medicare-subsidised Heart Health Check is currently voluntary, prompting the Heart Foundation to now advocate for a targeted screening program for cardiovascular disease given the weight of the evidence that people are much more likely to attend if called up to do so.
Successful SMS trial paves way for national heart disease screening program
Major trial finds significant increase in Heart Health Checks among at-risk people when prompted with text messages
The Heart Foundation is advocating for the development of Australia's first-ever heart disease screening program after a randomised controlled trial found a significant increase in people receiving heart health checks with their doctor.
A randomised controlled trial run by the Heart Foundation, published this week in the international Lancet Primary Care Journal, has found that a simple text message invitation can dramatically boost uptake of life-saving Heart Health Checks - strengthening the case for a national cardiovascular screening program.
The Text to Detect trial was led by the Heart Foundation and showed that patients who received an SMS invitation followed by a reminder "nudge" were up to 15 times more likely to see their GP for a Medicare Heart Health Check than those who received no message.
160 general practices from across Australia participated in the trial, with almost half located in regional or remote areas and 1 in 5 clinics located in the most disadvantaged areas.
Over a three month period, more than 70,000 recall text messages were sent to at-risk patients who had not recently had a cholesterol test or heart health assessment.
Not only were the text messages associated with a greater uptake of Heart Health Checks, but they were also associated with increased measurement of cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and weight related measures compared to control.
Post-hoc analysis of the data also revealed that the invitation and reminder messages were associated with increased prescription of important preventative medicines for high cholesterol in larger general practices, compared to control.
The Heart Foundation's Senior Manager for Healthcare Programs and Clinical Strategy, Natalie Raffoul, lead author of the paper, said the findings showed the power of low-cost digital reminders in preventing heart disease, one of Australia's leading causes of death.
"This is the strongest evidence yet that a structured, targeted, screening program for heart disease is both feasible and effective in primary care. A simple text message can save lives, and now we know it works at scale," Ms Raffoul said.
"General practices are best placed to deliver this kind of critical preventative care and we are so thankful to the thousands of GPs, nurses and general practice staff who have been involved in our pilot activity to date."
Next steps: designing a national cardiovascular screening program
On the back of the findings, the Heart Foundation today announced it will commence the design of an affordable and effective national program to systematically screen Australians for heart disease risk.
Ms Raffoul said the Heart Foundation will work with the sector to develop an affordable and effective targeted screening program options and will make the case to the Australian Government for their implementation.
"We cannot keep waiting for people to voluntarily show up to their GP for a life-saving check, the health system needs to work for us in the way that a structured recall system proved to be effective in this trial."
The announcement comes as Australia reaches a major milestone: 1 million Heart Health Checks have now been delivered by GPs, since the Medicare item was introduced in 2019.
Associate Professor Carissa Bonner from the University of Sydney was a scientific advisor on the program, and led consumer testing of the approach.
"This model addresses longstanding barriers to heart health checks, using behavioural messages that are accessible to people with different health literacy levels," A.Prof. Bonner said.
