title: [Blood pressure control through awareness of hypertension among female in-home caregivers].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our purpose was to clarify the situation regarding blood pressure control through awareness of hypertension among female groups of in-home caregivers and non-caregivers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used one existing data generated between December 2005 and April 2007. The subjects were females who were suffering from hypertension (66 caregivers were aged 49-84 years; 52 non-caregivers were aged 47-81 years). We defined persons suffering from hypertension on the basis of results of a self-administered questionnaire and blood pressure values. On the question of awareness of hypertension, we defined the persons who replied positively to any one of "I have hypertension," "I have suffered from hypertension," or "I take antihypertensive agents" as belonging to the "awareness group." We categorized the other respondents, who replied to all three questions in the negative as belonging to the "non-awareness group." We used blood pressure values, to build an index of the control with the chi2 test and the t-test for statistical comparisons. Values of P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that blood pressure values of caregivers in both the awareness group and the non-awareness group were high (awareness group vs non-awareness group overall SBP: 148 +/- 20 mmHg vs 154 +/- 9 mmHg, DBP: 79 +/- 13 mmHg vs 82 +/- 10 mmHg, P > 0.05). Furthermore, values were significantly lower for the awareness than non-awareness group with respect to the non-caregivers (SBP: 135 +/- 15 mmHg vs 149 +/- 7 mmHg, DBP: 73 +/- 10 mmHg vs 78 +/- 6 mmHg). Caregivers who took the antihypertensive agent in the awareness group demonstrated high values exceeding SBP 140 mmHg, which was the hypertensive standard value, not different from the values for caregivers not taking such medication. (taking vs non-taking SBP: 148 +/- 21 mmHg vs 149 +/- 8 mmHg).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among the caregivers, it was not only the members of the non-awareness group but also those of the awareness group who were found to have high blood pressure values. Though the caregivers took antihypertensive agents, their blood pressure values remained high.
authors.affiliation: Nagoya University, Graduate School of Medicine Master Course.
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: Ritsuko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hamamoto
authors.forename: Teruko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Kuniyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Takaaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamakoshi
authors.forename: Kazushi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Nobue
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nagasawa
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toyoshima
authors.forename: Hisataka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakakibara
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents