Effects of Public Health Center Hypertension Health School Program on Hypertension-related Knowledge, Self-care Behavior, Quality of life and Physiological Parameters in Hypertensive patients

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of health program s on hypertension in a public health center located in Y-si. Most interesting were the effects on hypertension-related knowledge, self-care behavior, quality of life, and physiological parameters for hypertensive patients. Nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was employed. A total of 48 patients with hypertension living in Y-si were assigned to either the experimental group (n=23) or the control group (n=25). The experimental group was provided with an 8-week health program on hypertension between August 31 and October 23 in 2015. Data were analyzed with SPSS/WIN 21.0 using descriptive statistics, χ 2-test, Fisher's exact test, and t-test. The result indicated a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group with respect to the scores of hypertension-related knowledge (t=-3.76, p<.001), self-care behavior (t=-3.33, p=.002), physiological parameters, including systolic blood pressure (t=6.27, p<.001) and diastolic blood pressure (t=4.70, p<.001), total cholesterol levels (t=3.08, p=.003), and Abdominal circumference (t=2.52, p=.015). We conclude that the self-group program on hypertension has a significant effect on the change of hypertension-related knowledge and self-care behavior for hypertensive patients.