Effects of a Food Consumption Behaviors Development Program for Hypertensive Patients at Pho Tak District, Nong Khai Province

Abstract

The objectives of this quasi-experimental research were to compare the perceived self-efficacy in food consumption behavior, actual food consumption behaviors, and health status, including blood pressure, body mass index, and waist circumference, of an experimental group before and after the experiment, and after the experiment between the experimental group and a comparison group. The sample comprised primary hypertension, male and female, aged 35-59 years, who had been treated with antihypertensive drugs for at least 1 year, with blood pressure between 140-180/90-110 mmHg. The experimental group who had characteristics within the inclusion criteria were selected by the simple random sampling technique, and a comparison group was selected with similar age, sex, and blood pressure, with 31 persons in each group. The experimental tool was the Food Consumption Behaviors Development Program for hypertensive patients based on the self-efficacy theory of Bandura.  The trial period was from September to October, 2022. The data collecting tools were: a questionnaire; health condition record; sphygmomanometer; scale and measuring tape. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Inferential statistics Paired t-test to compare within groups before and after the experiment. Independent t-test statistics were used to compare between the experimental and control groups. The statistical significance level was set at the 0.05.

          The results showed that: after the experiment, scores for perceived self-efficacy in food consumption of the experimental group were significantly higher than before the experiment and higher than the comparison group (p < 0.05). Food consumption behavior scores were significantly higher than before the experiment and increased more than the comparison group (p < .05).The mean systolic blood pressure, body mass index, and waist circumference of the experimental group were significantly lower than before the experiment (p < 0.05), but not different from the comparison group, and the mean diastolic blood pressure of the experimental group was not different than that before the experiment and not different from the comparison group. Therefore, the Food Consumption Behaviors Development Program should be used as a guideline for development Food Consumption Behaviors in other chronic diseases.