Effect of health education on the prevention of risk factors of cerebrovascular accident among hypertensive patients

Background: Hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases including stroke, coronary heart diseases and renal failure. Therefore, prevention of risk factors through health education, becomes an important goal in overall efforts to reduce the incidence of hypertension related cererbrovascular complications and outcomes. Aim: The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of health education on prevention of risk factors of cerebrovascular accident among hypertensive patients. Design: One group pretest posttest under quasi experimental research design was adopted for this study. Sample: The study was conducted on 60 hypertensive patients using a purposive sampling technique. Materials: A 20 item structured knowledge questionnaire based on the knowledge on prevention of risk factors of cerebrovascular accident among hypertensive patient was used. The reliability of the tool was assessed by using test-retest method, which was found to be 0.75. Result: The result of this study revealed that, in pretest, 80% of the hypertensive patients had poor knowledge (score 0-6) and 20% of them had average knowledge (score 7-13) regarding prevention of risk factors of cerebrovascular accident. In posttest, all of them had good knowledge (score 14-20) regarding prevention of risk factors of cerebrovascular accident (Fig.1). This indicates that the knowledge of the hypertensive patients improved remarkably after health education. Conclusion: Health education plays an important role in creating awareness among people regarding the health issues. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebrovascular accident and this study proves that by imparting education regarding prevention of risk factors for cerebrovascular accident on hypertensive patients, an individual can be saved from the risk.