Hypertension Education to Enhance Health Literacy

Abstract

Practice Problem: The health of patients suffers greatly when their health literacy is not addressed through evidence-based education material. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was, in adult patients with hypertension (P), how does evidence-based education material (I) compared to the current state of verbal instructions provided (C) affect health literacy rates based on the high blood pressure health literacy scale (O) within 12-weeks (T)? Evidence: The literature evidence revealed three strong themes, which included information on who is most at risk for low health literacy levels, education delivery methods, and specific education to be used. Intervention: This virtual intervention included a hypertension education format from the American Heart Association in both English and Spanish, when appropriate. The educational intervention was completed by the director at the clinic. Outcome: The results demonstrated a change in health literacy following education delivery. The two-tailed Wilcoxon signed rank test was not significant based on an alpha value of .05, V = 0.00, z = -1.83, p = .068 for the full high blood pressure-health literacy assessment for the four participants; however, the clinical significance was meaningful. Conclusion: The project was conducted in a free clinic for those who are marginalized. Four patients qualified based on the inclusion criteria, and each participant was given the health literacy assessment before and after receiving the evidence-based education material specific to hypertension.