The Effect of a Self-Regulation Program for Hypertensives in Rural Areas

Park, Young Im; Jun, Myung Hee

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify a effect of the comprehensive self-regulation program for hypertensives as a nursing intervention on self-care performance and the physiologic parameters in rural areas. For this purpose, a nonequivalent control group and a pre and post-test quasi- experimental design was used. Fifty-four were evaluated subjects from two Community Health Practitioner Posts in the suburbs of Taejon City. The subjects of the control and experimental groups were matched for age and sex. The self-regulation program developed by author given to the experimental group. The program consisted of group education on hypertension and self-care, self-regulation including the blood pressure self-monitoring, recording of self-care activities, and encouraging and reinforcing self-efficacy. The whole program was carried out from September to November of 1999. The data were analyzed by repeated measure ANCOVA, t-test, and ANCOVA. The results were as follows; There was significant improvement in the scores on knowledge (F=.68, P=.004), perceived self-efficacy (F=26.39, P=.000), self-care performance (F=26.11, P=.000) of the experimental group compared with those of the control group. There was no significant change on the score of locus of control, perceived benefits and perceived barrier, blood cholesterol level, body weight between two groups (P>.05). From these results, it can be concluded that the self-regulation program is an effective nursing strategy to promote self-care performance of hypertensives in rural area.