Healthy Ageing Through Internet Counselling in the Elderly: the HATICE randomised controlled trial for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease and dementia share a number of risk factors including hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, smoking, obesity, diabetes and physical inactivity. The rise of eHealth has led to increasing opportunities for large-scale delivery of prevention programmes encouraging self-management. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a multidomain intervention to optimise self-management of cardiovascular risk factors in older individuals, delivered through an coach-supported interactive internet platform, can improve the cardiovascular risk profile and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: HATICE is a multinational, multicentre, prospective, randomised, open-label blinded end point (PROBE) trial with 18 months intervention. Recruitment of 2600 older people (≥65 years) at increased risk of cardiovascular disease will take place in the Netherlands, Finland and France. Participants randomised to the intervention condition will have access to an interactive internet platform, stimulating self-management of vascular risk factors, with remote support by a coach. Participants in the control group will have access to a static internet platform with basic health information. The primary outcome is a composite score based on the average z-score of the difference between baseline and 18 months follow-up values of systolic blood pressure, low-density-lipoprotein and body mass index. Main secondary outcomes include the effect on the individual components of the primary outcome, the effect on lifestyle-related risk factors, incident cardiovascular disease, mortality, cognitive functioning, mood and cost-effectiveness. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the medical ethics committee of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Comité de Protection des Personnes Sud Ouest et Outre Mer in France and the Northern Savo Hospital District Research Ethics Committee in Finland. We expect that data from this study will result in a manuscript published in a peer-reviewed clinical open access journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN48151589.