title: Men's Educational Group Appointments in Rural Nicaragua.
abstract: Men's preventive health and wellness is largely neglected in rural Nicaragua, where a machismo culture prevents men from seeking health care. To address this issue, a men's educational group appointment model was initiated at a rural health post to increase awareness about hypertension, and to train community health leaders to measure blood pressure. Men's hypertension workshops were conducted with patient knowledge pretesting, didactic teaching, and posttesting. Pretesting and posttesting performances were recorded, blood pressures were screened, and community leaders were trained to perform sphygmomanometry. An increase in hypertension-related knowledge was observed after every workshop and community health leaders demonstrated proficiency in sphygmomanometry. In addition, several at-risk patients were identified and follow-up care arranged. Men's educational group appointments, shown to be effective in the United States in increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction, appear to function similarly in a resource-constrained environment and may be an effective mechanism for reaching underserved men in Nicaragua.
authors.affiliation: 1 Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.|2 Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: 3 Bridges to Community, Siuna, Nicaragua.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: 2 Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA.
authors.forename: McKenzie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: 2 Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kent
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003151:Community Health Centers; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D054526:Men's Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009527:Nicaragua; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: community outreach; health awareness; hypertension; social determinants of health