Effectiveness of the Virtual Educational Program in Self-care Practices in Hypertensive Elderly Adults

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual educational programs allow continuity of health care, but this implies developing strategies that allow greater participation of the population, especially in older adults. These programs are used to promote self-care practices with specific populations such as hypertensive patients in older adults, who need continuous monitoring of their lifestyles to control their disease.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of the virtual educational program on self-care practices in hypertensive older adults.

Methods: Pre-experimental study, with a single group, through a pre and posttest. The virtual educational program consisted of three sessions, a virtual educational material for feedback and after one month the post-test. Fifty-eight hypertensive older adults of both sexes between 60 and 85 years of age participated.

Results: Female sex represents 59%, adequate self-care practices reached 100% after the intervention, the average score before was 21.45 and after 32.71 - p<0.001.

Conclusions: The virtual educational program is effective in improving self-care practices, especially in the dimensions of physical activity, stress management and medical control.