Self-Care Health Management by the Hypertensive And/or Diabetic Patient - A Community Pharmacy-Based Survey

Taking into consideration that hypertension and diabetes are two major public health problems at both european and global level, the WHO European Health Report 2015 proposed as primary goal the premature reduction of mortality by cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes mellitus and chronic respiratory diseases by 1.5% annually, until 2020. Self-monitoring of blood pressure (BP) and/or blood glucose (BG) levels (SMBP/SMBG) is a major component of self-care health management of the hypertensive and/or diabetic patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge level of hypertensive/diabetic patients regarding hypertension/diabetes and the self-care management practices level among them. The study was conducted in a community pharmacy in Timisoara and was addressed to patients with essential hypertension and diabetes who were invited to respond to a face-to-face interview. The data were analysed using SPSS version-17. Descriptive statistics on the data were performed in form of frequencies and percentage test. A total of 303 hypertensive and/or diabetic patients have been recruited, who, in a large proportion, have shown that they have a good knowledge on hypertension/diabetes, their possible complications, know their own tension and/or glycemic values, regularly practice their own ambulatory self-monitoring and a large number of them recorded their BP/BG results. Our findings have shown that the vast majority of hypertensive and diabetic patients are aware that their own person is an active party in improving their quality of life by SMBP/SMBG, and that the pharmacist plays an important role in their educational process on all technical aspects of the practice.