Interest of Therapeutic Education in Improving the Practice of Self-Measurement of Blood Pressure at the Abidjan Cardiology Institute (C？te d’Ivoire)

Introduction-Aim: Therapeutic education of the patient aims to help patients acquire or maintain the skills they need to better manage their lives with a chronic disease. The objective of the study was to evaluate the value of therapeutic education in the practice of blood pressure self-measurement in patients followed at the Institute of Cardiology of Abidjan. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted for 15 months at the Institute of Cardiology of Abidjan. The study included hypertensive patients at least 18 years old for at least 6 months and followed up in outpatient clinics. The data were collected on an individual survey form with several items based on information from the medical records and questioning of the patients. The analyzed parameters were: socio-demographic features, other cardiovascular risk factors, clinical and preclinical data, antihypertensive treatment, and information on self-measurement. Results: The study population consisted of 300 patients with a male predominance (sex ratio of 1.46). The mean age of the patients was 59.5 ± 12.7 years old. Among the patients, 68.3% said that they knew about the self-measurement of blood pressure. 36.3% of the subjects, who were interviewed, had already performed a blood pressure self-measurement. 40.3% were trained in blood pressure self-monitoring. 71.9% of physicians provided blood pressure self-measurement training to patients. Medical staff talked to the patient about self-monitoring in 52.1% and encouraged the patient to perform it in 37.2% of cases. Among those who had received training in blood pressure self-measurement, 31.4% said they were familiar with the 3-step rule and in whom 39.5% gave a correct explanation. Only 25.7% of patients had self-measurement devices at the time of the survey, and the majority of blood pressure monitors or devices were upper arm ones (65.5%). The patients acquired blood pressure monitors by medical prescription in 41.6% of cases. Patients holding electronic blood pressure monitors used them regularly in 55.8% of cases. Among them, 71.4% performed self-measurement at least once during their follow-up and 63.6% had insurance. 74.6% of complications occurred in patients who did not perform self-measurement. Therapeutic education improved considerably the practice of self-monitoring of blood pressure. Conclusion: The practice of self-measurement of blood pressure was low. However, the practice of therapeutic education has positive effects on patients’ self-measurement of blood pressure.