Can text messages engage healthier lifestyle choices in participants with heart disease or at high risk for heart disease?

The intervention group will receive the 45 and Up Mobile Health Study program delivered over a 12-week time period via text messages that are designed to engage and educate participants about healthy lifestyles on quitting smoking, eating a heart-healthy diet, and increasing exercise levels. The messages will provide education, motivation and reminders customised to individual characteristics (current smoking, vegetarian, diabetic, and physical disability status). These will be delivered 4 times per week and will provide varying information to support participants with health education, such as embedded educational videos, self-reported surveys, and information to engage in healthy nutrition and exercise such as recipes and examples of physical activity. Examples of text messages may include: "Hi $PrefName, change doesn't come all at once. A little progress is still progress and needs to be celebrated. Keep up the good work!", "Try interval training with cycling. Cycle for 30 seconds at your highest effort, followed by 30 seconds of gentle cycling. Repeat 4-6 times", "Here's a recipe idea - wrap fish fillets in foil parcels with lemon, garlic & herbs and place in the oven. Serve with steamed veggies for a yummy, healthy meal", "A lot of meat substitutes have high amounts of salt. Healthier options include tofu, lentils and beans, or wholegrains such quinoa and buckwheat", "Hi $PrefName, you're doing great! Any movement is good movement. Regular exercise can improve your blood pressure & cholesterol". Message content has been reviewed and created by a team of healthcare professionals and researchers. Some messages have been designed specifically for this study and some will contain educational materials that are accessible via public links to online reliable sources such as the Heart Foundation Australia, American College of Sports Medicine, and European Society of Cardiology prevention guidelines. Participants cannot respond to their daily text message and will only receive messages. These messages will be sent on random days of the week (Monday to Friday) and at random times during the day (9:00am, 12noon, 3:00pm, 5:00pm). Messages are drawn from 4 message banks per week (one from general cardiovascular health, one from diet, one from physical activity, and one from smoking cessation). Non-smokers will receive two general messages, one diet message, and one physical activity per week. Smokers will receive one general message, one diet message, one physical activity, and one smoking per week. The messaging will be monitored in an automated, unidirectional manner using the TextCare software engine, designed and established by our team the University of Sydney. This message delivery software utilises computerised algorithms to generate and automatically send personalised texts. All messages delivered to the participants will be recorded by the TextCare software messaging engine, for example the logs on the timing of the sent messages and proportion of successful message deliveries.