Preliminary study of a school-based program to improve hypertension awareness in the community

We developed a school-based program to raise community awareness about hypertension. We studied the results of the program on the outcomes of parental knowledge about high blood pressure (BP) and their reports of having seen or intending to see a health professional about their BP.

We pilot tested a prototype middle-school curriculum using a crossover design in three fifth-grade classrooms (two designated early and one designated delayed intervention) in a suburban public school. We then used McNemar's test to assess significant differences in proportions responding correctly to BP knowledge questions and proportions reporting having seen or intending to see a health care professional about BP before and after the intervention. We tested for differences at 2-month follow-up in the early intervention classrooms compared to the delayed intervention classroom using chi-square.

Seventy-six parents (out of a potential 134) completed baseline questionnaires. Parents had high baseline knowledge about certain aspects of hypertension, but baseline knowledge that high BP could lead to kidney failure was relatively low. The percentage of parents responding correctly to a question of whether high BP could lead to kidney failure increased after the intervention from 45.5% to 64.3%. Among parents in the early intervention classrooms, the percentage who reported having seen or intending to see a health professional about their BP increased from 9.6% to 27.5%. At 2-month follow-up, 27.5% of parents in the early intervention classrooms reported being seen or intending to be seen by a health care provider about their BP compared to only 8.3% of the parents in the delayed intervention classroom.

This program may improve parents' knowledge about hypertension and their intent to be seen about BP.