The effect of group discussion on self-care behaviors among hypertensive patients referring to health care centers in Arak City

Besides drug regimen, modifying self-care behaviors is effective in controlling high-blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of group discussion on self-care behaviors in the patients with hypertension.

In this semi-experimental study, 100 hypertensive patients were selected randomly from 10 health care centers in Arak in 2012. After obtaining informed consent and before intervention, self-care questionnaire was filled out by both groups and blood pressure was measured. Four educational sessions were held weekly for the intervention group, while only lectures were delivered for the control group. After three months, self-care questionnaire was completed and blood pressure was measured again. Using spss (V.21), data were analyzed by independent and paired t-test, chi square test and multivariate analysis.p<0/05 was considered significant.

Self-care score in the intervention group was significantly higher than that in the control group (p <0.0001). The patients in the intervention group had significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures compared to the control group (p <0.0001).

It seems that group discussion training can be an effective way to improve self-care behaviors in the hypertensive patients and results in a significant reduction in blood pressure of the patients. Further studies on the impact of other educational methods on the self-care behavior of the patients are recommended.