title: Adding story-centered care to standard lifestyle intervention for people with Stage 1 hypertension.
abstract: This study examined the blood pressure (BP)-lowering effect of adding story-centered care (i.e., carefully attending to another's narrative) to standard lifestyle intervention (i.e., exercise training and nutrition counseling) for people with Stage 1 hypertension. The subjects (N = 24), who were university and hospital employees, were unmedicated and received standard lifestyle intervention; half were randomly assigned to story-centered care. Their 24-hour BP was measured four times at 8-week intervals, twice before and twice after the intervention. Subjects who received story-centered care had greater decreases (p < .05) in awake systolic BP over the 6-month study period. Neither systolic nor diastolic sleep BP was significantly affected. Story-centered care showed promise for contributing to the BP-lowering effect of lifestyle intervention. Approaches for integrating story-centered care into the treatment of people with hypertension are challenging but warrant further attention.
authors.affiliation: Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, USA. pliehr@fau.edu
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liehr
authors.forename: Janet C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Meininger
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vogler
authors.forename: Wenyaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frazier
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smalling
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fuentes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy*; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration