The cause of essential hypertension is yet unknown, but in general is caused by interaction of hereditary factors, diet, obesity, lack of exercise and stress. The aging process influences various physiological mechanism related to regulation of blood pressure. So elderly hypertensives have a tendancy to consider the disease as a result of the physiological aging process. This attitude causes many complications, worsening of the disease and even early death because of inappropriate care. In order to improve self-management of elderly hypertensives in this study the researcher examined the effect of blood pressure regulation by an education program that improves self-care behavior, through increasing self-efficacy. The education program consisted of group education on hypertension and self-care strategies, and encouraging and reinforcing self-efficacy resources such as verbal persuation, performance accomplishment and vicarious experiences. A quasi-experimental pre-and post-test design was used. Thirty-two elderly hypertensives participated in the study. Eighteen in the education group and fourteen in the control group. The education program consisted of eight sessions twice a week for four weeks. There was no intervention for the control group. Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows(Version 8.0). The results were as follows. 1. There was a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 2. There was no significant difference in the level of self-care behavior between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 3. There was significant difference in self-efficacy of experimental and control group, depending on the measuring period, but there was no difference between these groups on interaction by groups and over time. 4. There was positive correlation between self efficacy and self care behavior depending on the measuring period. There was negative correlation between diastolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the posttest of the program, and between systolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the follow-up test of the program. Findings indicate that this study will contribute to develop nursing strategies for the regulation of blood pressure for the elderly, which is easy for the elderly to learn as a nonpharmacologic approach.

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation nursing care on cardiac rehabilitation knowledge, anxiety, and self-care behavior in patients with acture myocardial infarction. The study design was composed of a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design and a non-equivalent control group post-test design. The subjects of the study consisted of thirty-four acute myocardial infarction patients hospitalized at a university hospital in Taegu between February 16, 1998 and May 12, 1998. the 34 research subjects were assigned to experimental( 17 patients ) and control( 17 patients ) groups. The phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation nursing care was composed of cardiac rehabilitation education taken from a rehabilitation manual and booklet, and participating in a progressive exercise program. After discharge, a phone interview was conducted in order to encourage the self-care behavior. The modified Knowledge Scale developed by Rahe et al.(1975) and translated into Korean by Hwang(1986), and the modified Self-Care Scale of exercise and diet based on Hickey et al.(1992), were used for data collection. Analysis of data was done by use of Chi-square test, t-test, Repeated measure ANOVA, Simple Main Effect, and Time contrast. The results of this study are as follows : 1. The first hypothesis, "The experimental group which received the phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation nursing care will have a higher level of knowledge than the control group", was supported(F=24.07, p=.000). 3. The third hypothesis, "The experimental group which received the phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation nursing care will have higher self-care behavior scores than the control group", was supported( t=-15.49, p=.000 ). From the above results, it can be concluded that phase 1 cardiac rehabilitation nursing care is an effective nursing intervention knowledge, reducing anxiety, and improving self-care behavior in patients with acute myocardial infarction.