Effectiveness of a low-intensity telephone counselling intervention on an untreated metabolic syndrome detected by national population screening in Korea: a non-randomised study using regression discontinuity design.

Low-intensity telephone counselling programmes could yield improvements in the following year on blood pressure, lipid profiles, weight and body mass index in untreated patients detected at the population screening. However, the improvements may be very modest and the clinical relevance of these small improvements may be limited.