농어촌 의료취약지역에서의 고혈압관리 실태와 보건진료전담공무원의 역할

Hypertension Management Status in Vulnerable Rural Areas and the Role of Community Health Practitioners

Purpose: This study was a descriptive study to investigate correlations between self-care behaviors and quality of hypertension management by hypertensive patients being cared by community health practitioners. Method: Participants were 583 people who were prescribed antihypertensive medications at a health clinic located in South Chungcheong Province. The survey was done from June 1 to July 30, 2018. A self-report questionnaire was administered, and data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients with the SPSS 24.0 program. Results: The rate of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension were 97.9%, 99.1% and 92.8%, respectively. The number of hypertensive self-care behaviors was 1.82 (±0.36) out of 3 points. The quality of hypertension management was 3.22 (±0.46) out of 4 points. There was a moderate correlation between hypertensive self-care behaviors and quality of hypertension management (r=.340, p<.001). Conclusions: Results of this study confirm that the quality of hypertension management by community health practitioners is related to self-care behaviors of hypertensive patients. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality of hypertension management by health care specialists for self-management of hypertension patients. In addition, a systematic program to improve the quality of hypertension management by community health practitioner is needed.