Effects of a Multicomponent Proactive Nursing Program on Blood Pressure Control at a 6-Month Follow-Up among Hypertensive Older Persons in Community

Abstract

The hypertension problem is still exited in older population and limited success of controlling blood pressure (BP) around the world. A longitudinal study of 100 hypertensive older patients in two primary care clinics in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand during June to November 2011, was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a multicomponent proactive nursing (MPN) program compared with routine care in improving blood pressure control. The participants were enrolled on criteria basis and matched pair to divide equally to the experimental or the comparison groups (50/group). The 3-month MPN program based on the Chronic Care Model was developed by literature review comprises multi-components targeted at patients and a proactive nursing care team. Data were collected at pre-intervention, three and six months and were analyzed by MANOVA. Results indicated that the participants in the experimental group had significantly different means of systolic pressure and pulse pressure at three month (p < .001) and six months (p = .004) between the groups. The percentage of participants maintaining blood pressure control was also significantly greater in the experimental group at three months(p< .001) and at six months (p= .005) than the control group. The findings indicated that the MPN program effectively improved the BP control in community-dwelling elder.