Selected Nursing Interventions for noncompliant hypertensive patients

Date

1986-05

Authors

Austin, Debra

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the combined effect of self-monitoring of blood pressure and medication-taking behavior, tailoring medication administration to daily routines, increased supervision and reinforcement (self- and external) on medication compliance and blood pressure of noncompliant hypertensive black patients. The dependent variables were medication compliance and diastolic blood pressure, while the independent variable was the combination of selected nursing interventions.

The study was an experimental pretest-posttest control design with random assignment to either the treatment or control group. Experimental subjects were visited in their homes biweekly for three visits over 4 weeks. Control subjects were visited in their homes at the beginning and end of the 4 weeks. During the second visit, control subjects were taught how to take their blood pressures and a tailoring plan for medication administration was developed, when needed.

The nonprobability sample consisted of 30 patients, recruited from nurse and physician referrals from a local hospital's outpatient clinic, two private physician practices, four senior citizen centers, and the community at large through two blood pressure screenings and subject referrals. The data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Three null hypotheses were tested and failed to be rejected. Findings indicated no significant differences in medication compliance in terms of pills taken (hypothesis 1) and pills taken at prescribed intervals (hypothesis 2) and diastolic blood pressure (hypothesis 3) between the experimental and control group of noncompliant hypertensive patients. The experimental group's posttest medication compliance levels were greater than the control group's. Also, the experimental group's posttest diastolic blood pressure was lower than the control group's diastolic blood pressure.

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Keywords

Hypertensive patients, Interventions, Medication compliance, Compliance of patients

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