Objective To investigate effect of an intervention program using self-efficacy enhancing technique on the quality of life of patients with hypertension.
Methods Eligible hypertensive patients from four communities in Huangpu District of Shanghai were recruited by cluster sampling. Two communities (Group A) adopted conventional health self-management, including regular blood pressure measurement, health consultant, group discussion, and reading health related newspaper and magazines. Another two communities (Group B) adopted additional self-efficacy intervention measures, such as peer education, speech contest, and health plans. Participants received baseline and endline surveys on demographic characteristics, quality of life, self-efficacy, and blood pressure. A total of 1 045 valid questionnaires were returned (n=498 in Group A; n=547 in group B).
Results In the endline survey, a difference was found in the hypertension control rate between Group A (91.6%) and Group B (95.6%). The self-efficacy levels of Group A and Group B both showed a decline, but the decrease of Group A (45.0%) was steeper than that of Group B (78.8%). After intervention, all scores of Group A were either not changed or decreased, except the role physical score which was higher than the baseline score (P < 0.05), while Group B showed improvements in the scores of physiological function, role physical, and role emotion (P < 0.05). In addition, more Group A participants believed that their health was poor over the past year (P < 0.05), but the proportion in Group B was declined (P < 0.05).
Conclusion Community-based intervention program using self-efficacy enhancing technique can effectively slow down the decline of quality of life of hypertensive patients.
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