Effects of a Structured Education Program on Blood Pressure in Essential Hypertensive Patients

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of a structured educational program for hypertensive patients. The program was developed at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany. The contents of the program are as follows: teaching of the background of hypertension, techniques of self estimation of blood pressure, life style and dietary habits, some information concerning the different pharmacological properties to treat hypertension

Detailed Description
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see brief description section

Official Title
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Effects of a Structured Education Program on Blood Pressure in Essential Hypertensive Patients and Effects of a Reminder Program for Physicians to Guide Optimal Therapy

Conditions
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Hypertension

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: structured educational program
* Behavioral: participation in the educational program after 6 months


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Intellectual and physical ability to attend teaching program, Capability to do and document blood pressure self-measurement, Systolic blood pressure >160 and/or diastolic blood pressure >95 mmHg, At least 3 months of preexisting medicamentous anti-hypertensive treatment, 15% or higher risc in New Zealand Risc Scale Exclusion Criteria: Failing inclusion criteria

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 85 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: group I (early intervention)<br>We refer to the results of the DAFNE-study. This study showed the merits of an educational program in diabetics. In accordance to the protocol of DAFNE, we developed a design as follows: For each participating center patients are randomly assigned to two groups. Group I receives an early educational intervention at time of randomization, which should lead to better control of blood pressure after 6 months compared to the control group. The protocol design was chosen for proving an independent effect of the educational program despite optimal management by the GP. Group II is designated to receive the educational intervention 6 months after enrollment into the study. for further details please see brief description section | Behavioral: structured educational program<br>* structured education and evaluation of hypertensive patients in a design similar to the DAFNE study design. Behavioural intervention follows the Dusseldorf-educational program<br>* Other names: delayed educational program six moth later;|
| Other: delayed education<br>delayed educational intervention for further details please see brief description section | Behavioral: participation in the educational program after 6 months<br>* Control group consisting of patients randomly assigned to participate in the educational program 6 months later than the active group<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Blood pressure at 6 and 12 months of follow up following the educational process |  | 1 year | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| morbidity on different cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases |  | 1 year | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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hypertension, self measurement of blood pressure, education program, life style