Background Hypertension is the root cause of many chronic diseases. Lifestyle changes (ie, dietary alterations and physical activity) are seen to be an important step in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Educating people through web-based interventional programs could offer an effective solution and help these patients with hypertension in the existing health care scenario. Objective In this study, the researchers conducted a scoping literature review of the web-based dietary changes and physical activity–related intervention programs designed for the patients with hypertension and identified the methodologies, effectiveness, protocols, and theories, which could affect and improve existing clinical activities. Methods This review followed the scoping review methodology to identify and process the peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2020. The literature searches were conducted on the following electronic databases: PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online), ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar. By using relevant search terms, studies were included if they offered information related to the web-based intervention tools, specifically dietary and physical activity intervention for patients with hypertension. Studies written or translated in English language and published within the date range (January 2010 to March 2020) were included. Results Overall, 1441 articles were initially identified. The reviewers included 35 articles after removing duplicates and screening titles. Only 21 articles were assessed for full review, and 15 were kept for analysis. The researchers selected 15 web-based intervention articles published on the topic of hypertension from 7 countries. A few of these 15 web-based tools (4, 27%) included more than 3 functions and provided a lot of important information (such as appointments, health records, or viewable care). Several tools were standalone tools (11, 73%), while most of the tools supported communication intervention–related lifestyle or behavioral changes (13, 87%) and medication adherence (6, 40%). It was found that physicians (9, 60%), allied health professionals (5, 33%), and nurses (5, 33%) were the health care providers who generally used these tools for communicating with their patients. More than half of the above tools (10, 67%) were assessed by different researchers in randomized controlled trials, while 5 tools (33%) were investigated in nonrandomized studies. Conclusions We identified many web-based intervention programs for patients with hypertension from the literature databases. The findings indicate that numerous benefits can be derived after using a web-based dietary and physical activity intervention program for hypertension focusing on lifestyle changes. However, developers need to consider the preferences of the patients with regard to the information or the design features while developing or modifying web-based educational websites. These tools could be used for designing a patient-tailored website intervention program that is based on diet and physical activities for patients with hypertension.

Hypertension websites are widely and easily accessible. This study aims to assess the understandability and actionability of hypertension websites. Eight websites that met the inclusion criteria were included. Eight experts were appointed to evaluate the websites using PEMAT instrument. The overall mean scores for understandability and actionability were 76.08% and 52.83% respectively. One website did not meet the criteria for understandability (score of ≥70%), while almost all materials failed to meet the criteria for actionability (score of ≤70%). In conclusion, this study provides evidence that many of the available hypertension websites can be easily understood but are less actionable. Keywords: Hypertension; Health promotion; Internet; Website quality eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bsby e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.2230

Patients' access to healthcare settings has been restricted to contain the spread of COVID-19, such as altering their health information-seeking behaviors, but this has not been documented among hypertensive patients. This study explored how patients obtain health information about hypertension during COVID-19. Face-to-face and online interviews were employed, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used to guide the interview. Two major themes emerged about the information sources: interpersonal and online. Patients seek health information from family members, healthcare professionals, friends, and online platforms. This study demonstrates that patients continue to seek health information during Pandemic COVID-19 to ensure that their hypertension remains under control. Keywords: Health Information; Hypertension; COVID-19; Malay eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i19.3209

BACKGROUND Hypertension is the root cause of many chronic diseases. Lifestyle changes, i.e., dietary alterations and physical activity, were seen to be an important step in the prevention and treatment of hypertension. Educating people through the web-based interventional programs could offer an effective solution and help these hypertensive patients in the existing healthcare scenario. OBJECTIVE In this study, the researchers conducted a literature review of the web-based dietary changes and physical activity-related intervention programs designed for the hypertensive patients, for identifying the methodologies, effectiveness, protocols and the theories that could affect and improve the existing clinical activities. METHODS This review is supported by the 5-stage framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley, for mapping the relevant studies published in the literature in the following manner: (1) Identifying the research questions; (2) Identifying the relevant studies; (3) Selection of such studies for further reviewing; (4) Charting the data from the selected studies in the literature; and (5) Summarising the reports and the results. Here, the researchers carried an electronic and manual search of the 6 databases. They have summarised all the data based on the characteristics of the different web-based tools (i.e., structure, function, and communication paradigm), context and users, intended use, evaluation (of the study design and the outcomes) using the studies in the literature. RESULTS The researchers selected 15 web-based intervention articles published on the topic of hypertension from 7 countries. A few of these web-based tools (26.5%, 4/15) included >3 functions and provided a lot of important information (like appointments, health record, or viewable care). Several tools were seen to be standalone tools (73.5%, 11/15), while a majority of the tools supported the communication intervention-related lifestyle or behavioural changes (86.5%, 13/15) and the medication adherence (40%, 6/15). It was seen that physicians (60%, 9/15), allied health professionals from different disciplines (33.5%, 5/15), and nurses (33.5%, 5/15), were the healthcare providers who generally used these tools for communicating with their patients. More than half of the above tools (67%, 10/15) were assessed by different researchers in the randomised controlled trials, while 5 tools (33%, 5/15) were investigated in the non-randomised studies. CONCLUSIONS In this study, the researchers identified many web-based intervention programs for hypertensive patients from the databases. They stated that developers need to consider the preferences of the patients with regards to the information or the design features while developing or modifying the web-based educational websites. These tools could be used for designing a patient-tailored website intervention program which was based on the diet and the physical activities for the hypertensive patients.

The implementation of infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in dietary restrictions among hypertensive patients. This study aimed to explore the experience of dietary management among Malay hypertensive patients during COVID-19. The results outlined divergent changes in dietary practices among participants, including improvement, worsening, as well as no changes. The effect of the pandemic has both negatively and positively impacted on dietary, which could have a substantial impact on the population's health in the short and long term if they are sustained. Keywords: Dietary ; Physical Activity ; Covid-19 ; Hypertension eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i18.3086