Study Protocol of the EMPOWER-SUSTAIN Project

A pilot randomised controlled trial will be conducted in UiTM Primary Care Clinic, Selayang Campus, Selangor, Malaysia. A total of 232 patients with Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) will be recruited; 116 will be randomised to receive the EMPOWER-SUSTAIN intervention for 6 months and another 116 patients will continue with usual care. The EMPOWER-SUSTAIN intervention is a multifaceted chronic disease management strategies based on the Chronic Care Model (CCM) and persuasive technology theory. It consists of training physicians and patients to use the EMPOWER-SUSTAIN web-based self-management intervention mobile apps, strengthening patient-physician relationship and reinforcing the use of relevant clinical practice guidelines for management and prescribing. The primary outcome is the mean change in patient activation score using the Patient Activation Measure short form Malay version (PAM-13-M) questionnaire. The secondary outcomes include the change in patients' physical activity level, eating behavior, patients' perception on chronic illness care, satisfaction in physician-patient interaction and perceived absolute 10-year cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.