Hypertension is a global menace contributing to significant morbidity and mortality. Inadequate health literacy is associated with poor hypertension control. This study aims to evaluate the outcome of a nurse-led intervention on health literacy (HL) among people living with hypertension (PLWH) in Kwara State. The study adopted a Quasi-experimental non-equivalent intervention and control group pretest-posttest design of four phases of data collection from the control and intervention groups. The setting was the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) and General Hospital Ilorin (GHI), and the study population is hypertensive patients attending the selected hospitals. One hundred participants were purposively selected (50 each to intervention and control groups). Data was obtained from the participants with standardized questionnaires; European Health Literacy Survey 16-item Questionnaire. Descriptive data was analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. While inferential data was analyzed using a t-test and correlation coefficient. The results showed that the mean age of participants in control and intervention is 57.1±13.0 and 54.9±10.9, respectively; the majority were female, 68%, and 70%, respectively. 42% and 76% were diagnosed with hypertension > 6 months – 5 years. At pre-intervention, 62% and 22% of the CG and IG adequate HL, 58% and 54% at 6 weeks post-intervention, 56% and 78% at 3 months post-intervention, and 64% and 82% respectively at 6 months post-intervention. Conclusively, the HL of the IG improved from pre-intervention to post-intervention.

Keywords: Self-management,  Health literacy, Intervention, Hypertension,

Cite this article: