Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Jun 26, 2023; 15(6): 324-327
Published online Jun 26, 2023. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v15.i6.324
Virtual patient education for hypertension: The truth about behavioral change
Zeynep Yukselen, Yuvaraj Singh, Sarat Malempati, Mahati Dasari, Pramukh Arun Kumar, Eddison Ramsaran
Zeynep Yukselen, Yuvaraj Singh, Sarat Malempati, Mahati Dasari, Pramukh Arun Kumar, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Vincent Hospital, Worcester, MA 01608, United States
Zeynep Yukselen, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, United States
Eddison Ramsaran, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Saint Vincent Hospital, Worcester, MA 01608, United States
Author contributions: Yukselen Z and Singh Y conceived the idea for the study; Yukselen Z, Singh Y, Malempati S, Dasari M and Arun Kumar P undertook the literature review; Yukselen Z and Singh Y wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Yukselen Z, Malempati S, Singh Y, Dasari M, Arun Kumar P and Ramsaran E revised the subsequent drafts of the manuscript; All authors reviewed and agreed on the final draft of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zeynep Yukselen, BSc, MD, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Vincent Hospital, 123 Summer St., Worcester, MA 01608, United States. zyukselen@umass.edu
Received: March 19, 2023
Peer-review started: March 19, 2023
First decision: April 28, 2023
Revised: May 11, 2023
Accepted: May 22, 2023
Article in press: May 22, 2023
Published online: June 26, 2023
Abstract

Anti-hypertensive education is an important public health intervention to decrease the mortality and burden of the disease. Using digital technologies for education as a part of preventive measures for hypertension is a cost-effective approach and helps low-income communities and vulnerable populations overcome barriers to healthcare access. The coronavirus disease 19 pandemic further highlighted the need of new health interventions to address health inequalities. Virtual education is helpful to improve awareness, knowledge, and attitude toward hypertension. However, given the complexity of behavioral change, educational approaches do not always provide a change in behavior. Some of the obstacles in online hypertensive education could be time limitations, not being tailored to individual needs and not including the different elements of behavioral models to enhance behavior change. Studies regarding virtual education should be encouraged and involve lifestyle modifications emphasizing the importance of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet, salt restriction, and exercise and should be used adjunct to in-person visits for the management of hypertension. Additionally, to stratify patients according to hypertension type (essential or secondary) would be useful to create specific educational materials. Virtual hypertension education is promising to increase awareness regarding risk factors and most importantly motivate patients to be more compliant with management helping to decrease hypertension related complications and hospitalizations.

Keywords: Hypertension, Virtual education, Health promotion, Public health, Patient education, Patient adherence, Dietary approaches to stop hypertension diet

Core Tip: Online anti-hypertensive education can play an important role in preventing and managing hypertension by providing individuals with the knowledge and resources they need to make lifestyle changes. Hypertensive management and education can be difficult in certain populations due to lack of access to healthcare, lack of information, and social determinants of health. Virtual education would promote health in those vulnerable populations.