BLOOD PRESSURE DIARY AS A COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTION TO INCREASE HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS' PERCEPTION OF TREATMENT: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

ABSTRACT

Background: Hypertension is one of global health issues that become a leading modifiable risk factor of various illnesses. As one of twelve indicators of The Healthy Indonesia Program-a family approach (PIS-PK), comprehensive hypertension treatment is a parameter of a healthy community. Objective: This preliminary study aim was to determine demographic profile of hypertension patients and improve patients' perceptions of hypertension treatment. Method: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, we used patients with hypertension who reside in Panjeng village, Ponorogo, Indonesia in November 2020 as population sample. Definition of hypertension was based on the 2020 International Society of Hypertension practice guidelines. The intervention of this study was distribution of a blood pressure diary, which consists blood pressure evaluation page for each visitation as well as educational page about risk factors and management of hypertension. Healthy Family Index, a PIS-PK outcome, was used to assess the intervention's effectiveness. Result: This study has 21 participants, with an average age of 63,3 ± 10,5 years, and 76,2% were female. Among those subjects, 61,9% of participants had grade 2 hypertension, 33,3 % had grade 1 hypertension, and 4,8% had normal-high blood pressure. Only 23,8% of patients were committed to taking their medicine regularly. Based on the results of the Healthy Family Index, there was a 6% rise in the indicator of adherence to treatment in patients with hypertension in the year following the intervention (36.4 % (2020) vs. 42.2 % (2021)). One of the factor that affect this result was Covid-19 pandemy, that patients may feel hesitate to visits to healthcare facility. Conclusion: Blood pressure diary can be considered as potential communitybased intervention to improve patient perception of treatment, as well as to monitor and evaluate hypertension therapy. Further and bigger-scale research is needed to determine the direct effect of this intervention to medication adherence.