Risk factors for systemic arterial hypertension: Evaluation of the effectiveness of health education actions

Abstract

Systemic Arterial Hypertension is the most frequent of cardiovascular diseases and responds as the main risk factor for the most common complications, such as stroke and acute myocardial infarction, in addition to end-stage chronic kidney disease. Health education is the main tool for changes in habits and lifestyle, fundamental in the preventive process for this pathology. The aim of this research was to analyze the influence of educational actions in health on systemic arterial hypertension in the change of lifestyle of the servants of the Court of Justice of the State of Amapá. The study had the participation of 255 servers and a questionnaire was used for data collection, which were analyzed through SPSS version 22 (IBM SPSS, USA). It was observed that 54.1% were female, 66.3% brown, 33.7% aged between 40 and 49 years, 47.8% had higher education and 59.6% were married or lived in a stable union. The Body Mass Index showed that 48.2% were overweight, 64.7% had increased abdominal circumference and 10.6% had capillary blood glucose values ≥ 99 mg/dL. Regarding blood pressure, 33.3% of men and 21.7% of women had PA ≥ and 140 and/or 90 mmHg. Regarding participation in some preventive or educational activity, 76.1% stated that yes, of which 60.4% considered them satisfactory and 44.7% considered that there was no influence on lifestyle change. It was concluded that health education actions are partially impacting on the change in the habits of employees, because the indexes of risk factors still raise concern.