Eficácia da educação em saúde para a adesão ao tratamento não medicamentoso da hipertensão arterial sistêmica

Abstract

Hypertension, even being considered a modifiable risk factor, low rates of control and represents a major challenge for health professionals. Health education has been considered one of the best strategies of control, to encourage adherence to nonpharmacological treatment. In this intervention study, prospective cohort, we verified the effectiveness of health education to increase adherence to nonpharmacological treatment of hypertension. The participants were 216 hypertensive patients enrolled in family health units in the urban area of a city in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. The educational intervention was performed in three stages, with one week interval between them. At the first meeting were discussed the issues eating habits and intake of alcoholic beverages by the hypertensive patient, the second discussed the smoking issues, importance of physical activity and weight control, and finally at the last meeting, all matters were taken up in a dynamic evaluation. The results were evaluated three months after this last meeting. Statistical analysis have used the chi-square McNemar purposes to assess the paired data before and after the process of health education. We have observed the predominance of females, aged between 60-79 years and diagnosed with hypertension for 10 years. There was a statistically significant change in the consumption of vegetables (p <0.001), adherence to the practice of activity (p = 0.03), reduction of body mass index (p = 0.018) and waist circumference (p <0.001) and in blood pressure control (p = 0.004). The study allowed us to infer the lifestyle of patients with hypertension is directly related to the condition control. It also corroborates that the educational strategies used have proved the potential of promoting behavioral changes among hypertensive patients. It is suggested that similar methodologies are inserted into the reality of the teams in order to provide conditions for the health education to became integral practice and applicable.