title: Effectiveness of a Stroke Risk Self-Management Intervention for Adults with Prehypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based intervention for prehypertensive adults, to enhance stroke risk awareness and to adopt a preventive lifestyle for primary stroke prevention.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a single-blinded, repeated measures quasi-experimental study with 47 participants (23 in the experimental group and 24 in the control group) recruited through convenience sampling from two urban areas. The stroke risk self-management intervention consisted of three weekly, 2-hour, face-to-face sessions and two booster telephone sessions, utilizing strategies to enhance motivation for behavioral changes based on the Self-Determination Theory. All participants completed a pretest, a 1-month and a 3-month post test of stroke risk awareness and preventive lifestyle including blood pressure self-monitoring, healthy diet, and regular physical activity. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, two sample t test, repeated measures analysis of variance, and Friedman test with PASW Statistics 18.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the intervention, significant improvements were found in the experimental group for stroke risk awareness, blood pressure self-monitoring and regular physical activity, and were sustained over time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our preliminary results indicate that the stroke risk self-management intervention is feasible and associated with improvement in self-management of stroke risk factors for primary stroke prevention among a prehypertensive population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Wonju College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hee-Young
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Division of Nursing, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, South Korea. Electronic address: namka@hallym.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Kyoung A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000193:education*; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D058246:Prehypertension / Q000451:nursing*; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012307:Risk Factors; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D020521:Stroke / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: prehypertension; primary prevention; risk; self-care; stroke