Hypertension Self-Management Perspectives From African American Older Adults

Abstract

African Americans are disproportionately impacted by hypertension, suffering earlier onset and greater severity of the disease, and premature cardiovascular mortality, than the general population. Managing hypertension is an unending concern for African American older adults. A better understanding of the self-management preferences of this vulnerable population will lead to the enhanced design of culturally acceptable interventions. This descriptive study examined focus group participants’ perspectives on engaging in hypertension self-management activities with the goal of developing a co-created intervention. This study was part of a mixed methods study for which audio- and graphically-recorded focus groups were conducted with community-dwelling African American older adults ( N = 31) diagnosed with hypertension. The majority of the participants were women (87%); the mean age was 72 years ( SD = 7.53). Themes derived from data analyses centered on primary stressors of communication, healthy eating, and sleep related to blood pressure self-management. Based on these, the researchers co-created educational interventions.