The effect of health education on Taiwanese hypertensive patients' knowledge and cognition of stroke.

Abstract

Hypertension is a risk factor for stroke. Increasing patient knowledge and cognition about stroke among hypertensive patients is essential. To explore the effect of a health education intervention on the knowledge and cognition of stroke in hypertensive patients. A quasi-experimental design was used with 103 patients with hypertension. The sample was recruited from a cardiologist's outpatient office at a medical center in Kaohsiung city, southern Taiwan. Half the patients (experimental group, n = 52) received health education, whereas the others received only conventional general outpatient care (control group, n = 51). All patients underwent a pretest followed by posttests at 4 and 8 weeks after the intervention. A stroke knowledge scale and stroke cognition scale were used for data collection. The experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group in level of knowledge and cognition of stroke. This study supports that a health education CD-ROM and printed information provided in the outpatient clinical improves knowledge of and cognition of stroke among hypertensive patients. In outpatient clinical practice, nurses can help improve patients' knowledge and cognition of the risks of stroke by playing the health education CD-ROM and providing printed information during the patients' wait time before appointments. Further studies with a longer follow-up (6 months or 1 year) are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of health education on stroke knowledge and cognition among patients with hypertension. An outpatient health education program using a CD-ROM and printed information for hypertensive patients can improve the patients' knowledge and cognition of stroke.