The Effectiveness of the Android Application as a Pharmaceutical Education Tool in Hypertensive Patients

Overview

Hypertension is a worldwide public health challenge due to its high prevalence and along with increased risk of complications of other diseases that are more dangerous if not managed properly. An estimated 1.4 billion people worldwide have high blood pressure, but only 14% can control it. Knowledge of hypertension in patients with hypertension can prevent complications through hypertension treatment. Increasing knowledge can be done by providing education in the form of counseling by pharmacists to hypertensive patients. Counseling activities carried out by pharmacists can be supported by a technological approach. One of the uses in smartphone technology is by creating an android-based mobile application that can be developed to support pharmaceutical care. Education conducted by pharmacists can increase knowledge that will affect hypertension treatment adherence, and this education can also improve blood pressure control so that it can improve the quality of life. The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the android application as a standard pharmacist education tool on knowledge as well as adherence and therapeutic outcomes of hypertensive patients, and quality of life related to the health of hypertensive patients compared to just providing standard education by pharmacists to hypertensive patients at the Primary Health Care. The method used in this study is a Quasi-Experimental with Pretest - Posttest Control Group Design. Samples were obtained by purposive sampling method at the selected Primary Health Care as the intervention group and the selected Primary Health Care as the control group. Pharmacist provides education to intervention groups with android applications as counseling aids and in control groups only standard counseling is provided. Pre-test data collection was done by taking primary and secondary data of patients at the first meeting and post-test data collection was taken prospectively through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires on hypertensive patients participants for three months by observing the influence of android applications as counseling aids on knowledge of hypertensive diseases, adherence to antihypertensive treatment, outcome therapy and quality of life.