The control of the hypertension in rural primary health care settings in Korea

농촌지역 일차건강관리 기관의 고혈압환자 관리실태 -전남지역을 중심으로-

The control of the chronic degenerative diseases becomes a challenge in Korea as the aging of the population progresses. Accordingly, the importance of the control of the hypertension, one of the major chronic degenerative diseases, in the primary health care settings increases. However, such control activities are still minimal. This study gives brief description of how the rural residents who are currently registered for the control of the hypertension feel about the activities of the health centers, subcenters and the CHP posts, in relation to the control of the hypertension. We also describe the knowledge and practice of the registered hypertensive. In general, the knowledge, the acceptance and the satisfaction of the respondents about the hypertension control activities were not very high. Respondents being managed by the health center showed the highest knowledge, acceptance and satisfaction, and those being managed by the subcenters ranked lowest. The knowledge about the hypertension was not satisfactory. There were great variations among the items in terms of the proportion answered correctly. As many as 60% of the respondents take medication regularly but only 4.5% were practicing weight control regularly. Despite some limitations of the study, the results can be very useful for those planning hypertension control programs. The educational materials and the dietary protocols need to be developed in accordance with the regional social and food pattern, so that they can be utilized with minimal modification for each beneficiary. We also suggest to minimize the area a health personnel covers. In other word, running several small health posts at village level would be more effective than running a subcenter at the township level, in terms of the hypertension control.