An educational intervention for hypertension management in older African Americans.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a telecommunications approach to hypertension education. METHODS: Participants (N = 83) were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Experimental group participants received spiritual and hypertension-related messages via programmed telephone calls, and the control group participants received spiritual messages only. Both the experimental and control group participants received the following: printed material on hypertension-related information and regular home visits from a health educator to conduct pre-test and post-test assessments of hypertension knowledge, pill counts, and blood pressure readings. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant improvements in hypertension knowledge. By week 4 of the intervention, there was a statistically significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure for both groups. However, there were no differences between the experimental and control groups. DISCUSSION: There was no evidence that the telecommunications approach improved older African Americans' understanding of hypertension or its management.