Effects of Health Literacy Promotion Program on Self-Care Behaviors and Blood Pressure Levels among Uncontrolled Hypertensive Patients Receiving Services at Hypertension Clinic, Hua Pa Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital, Phromburi District, Sing Buri

Abstract

     This study was quasi-experimental research with a two-group pretest-posttest design aimed to investigate the effects of a health literacy promotion program on self-care behaviors and blood pressure levels among hypertensive patients with uncontrolled blood pressure. The study was conducted from October 2024 to September 2025 over a 12-month period. The qualitative sample for program development consisted of 45 participants including patients, healthcare personnel, and experts. The quantitative sample for program evaluation comprised 64 hypertensive patients with uncontrolled blood pressure, randomly divided into experimental and control groups with 32 participants each. Research instruments included a health literacy promotion program, general information questionnaire, health literacy assessment form, self-care behavior assessment form, clinical data recording form, and program satisfaction assessment form. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Paired t-test, independent t-test, χ² test), while qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis.

     The findings revealed that the developed program consisted of 8 core components: enhancing knowledge about hypertension, developing skills for accessing health information, strengthening understanding and skills for evaluating health information, promoting health communication skills, developing self-care behaviors regarding nutrition, promoting exercise behaviors, developing stress management skills, and strengthening adherence to medical recommendations. After program implementation, health literacy increased from 125.34±18.76 to 165.87±16.43 points, self-care behaviors improved from 89.7±15.2 to 119.4±12.8 points, disease knowledge increased from 11.2±3.4 to 17.8±2.1 points, systolic blood pressure decreased from 156.8±12.4 to 138.2±8.9 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure decreased from 94.6±7.8 to 83.4±6.2 mmHg, and blood pressure control rate increased from 0% to 71.9%, all statistically significant at the .05 level (t = 11.45, 9.82, 10.34, 8.67, 7.43, χ² = 24.38 respectively).