Educational program for hypertension detection

Includes bibliographical references (pages 34-35)A workshop was developed to instruct people in the detection, screening and referral of possible hypertensive persons. This program was implemented by a pretest ??? educational activity ??? posttest format. The specific objectives for the workshop concerned knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of the target group. The knowledge objectives dealt with the epidemiology, etiology, treatment, prognosis and detection of adults with hypertension. The attitudinal objectives stressed the importance of taking accurate blood pressure, and the importance of referring adults with elevated blood pressure. The behavioral objectives concerned the ability to measure blood pressure accurately, ability to administer a history form pertinent to hypertension and ability to give referral information. The target group consisted of volunteer licensed optometrists who were members of the San Fernando Valley Optometric Society, and interested in participation in a program of hypertension detection. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop, a pilot study which involved these selected optometrists taking blood pressures on some of their patients, was conducted under the auspices of the Community Coordinating Council for Hypertension Control. This study was undertaken to determine the feasibility of utilizing such professionals in the screening process.\ud The author concludes that the results of the workshop and pilot study indicated that the project was successful with respect to accomplishing most of these objectives. The author also concludes that involving health care providers in the screening process is feasible and made specific suggestions for future projects of a similar nature