The Alzate, Pamela S. creator text monographic eng

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OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of involving a Health partner in lifestyle modification in controling newly diagnosed hypertension DESIGN: Prospective two-group single blind study SETTING: Family Medicine Clinic, University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital SUBJECTS: Twenty-nine patients consulting at the clinic from June to September 1997 and were found to have borderline to stage II hypertension according to the JNC V classification were randomly chosen and allocated to two groups and followed up for a period of 5 months. These were newly diagnosed cases of hypertension, with one group having a chosen health partner to monitor adherence to lifestyle modification and the other given advice on lifestyle modification by the Family Medicine resident Main outcome measures: Changes in the blood pressure taken weekly for 1 month and weight reduction using the Students t test to compare both groups at 95% confidence interval; and Multivariate analysis using repeated measures of ANOVA to evaluate the changes in measurement over time; and relative risk for uncontrolled hypertension and its incidence after the last week of the trial using both groups. RESULTS: Out of an original 36 patients only 29 subjects were evaluable with the rest dropping out. The group with a health partner had a mean decrease of 55 mm Hg compared to 2.64 mm Hg in the control group of their diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at the end of the third week while systolic blood pressure (SBP) in the treatment group had a mean decrease of 16.66 mmHg with the control at 3.8 mm Hg and were significant using t test at confidence interval of 95%. Multivariate analysis to control for variability among subjects was significant for DBP at .012 and 0 for SBP. Relative risk for uncontrollable DBP and SBP were 0.445 and 0.27211 implying that involving a health partner is beneficial compared to the usual care. Incidence of hypertension at the end of the trial was 25% in the treatment group and 64% in the control. CONCLUSION: The presence of a health partner in monitoring lifestyle modification significantly controls compliance to suggested regimen among patients who are newly diagnosed for borderline up to stage II hypertension. Pamela S. Alzate The Filipino Family Physician, 1998 36 (2) pages 45-50 Healthy Lifestyle Hypertension 210423 20210423111949.0 D0001J000514