OBJECTIVES A poor therapeutic compliance is a major cause of insufficient control of hypertension. As education of patients is fundamental in order to improve their compliance, we organised two pilot educational meetings aimed at (1) assessing the support of patients to this kind of meetings, and (2) verifying the impact on patient's education. METHODS We invited 225 consecutive patients referred to our Hypertension Clinic (some of them regularly followed up and some referred for the first time) to participate to an educational meeting on hypertension. Patients were divided in two groups, for organising reasons each attending a single meeting. Each meeting included four sessions: (1) the first session included a multiple choice questionnaire (nine questions, with answers collected by an interactive electronic system) in order to evaluate the degree of patient's information about hypertension (definition, prevalence, aetiology, complications and treatment), (2) a traditional teaching session, (3) an interactive phase aimed to assess the improvement of knowledge in which the same questions as in the first session have been asked again, and (4) a general discussion session. RESULTS A total of 144 patients (mean age 54 +/- 12 years; 76 M, 68 F) of the 225 invited attended the meeting. The answers to our questions in the initial session were correct in a percentage ranging from 60% to 80%. During the third phase immediately after the teaching session, the percentage of correct answers increased significantly (range: 75--98%, P < 0.05 at least in all questions). CONCLUSIONS This study shows: (1) a satisfactory adherence of patients to this educational initiative; (2) a positive impact of a single educational meeting on patient's knowledge about issues related to hypertension. The potential role of improving patient's education on clinical outcomes such as blood pressure levels and the rate of blood pressure control requires future controlled studies. Journal of Human Hypertension (2001) 15, 57-61

中文翻译：

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通过一次高血压教育会议提高患者的知识。

目的治疗依从性差是高血压控制不力的主要原因。由于对患者的教育对于提高依从性至关重要，因此我们组织了两次试点教育会议，旨在（1）评估患者对此类会议的支持，以及（2）验证对患者教育的影响。方法我们邀请了225例转诊至高血压诊所的患者（其中一些患者定期随访，有些是首次转诊）参加高血压教育会议。出于组织原因，将患者分为两组，每组参加一次会议。每次会议包括四次会议：（1）第一届会议包括多项选择问卷（九个问题，（通过互动式电子系统收集答案）以评估患者有关高血压的信息（定义，患病率，病因，并发症和治疗）的程度，（2）传统教学课程，（3）旨在评估高血压的互动阶段知识的提高，其中再次提出了与第一届会议相同的问题；以及（4）一次一般性讨论。结果在225名受邀者中，共有144名患者（平均年龄54 +/- 12岁； 76 M，68 F）参加了会议。在最初的会议中，对我们问题的答案是正确的，百分比在60％至80％之间。在教学后的第三阶段中，正确答案的百分比显着增加（范围：75--98％，至少在所有问题中P <0.05）。结论本研究表明：（1）患者对这项教育计划的满意遵守；（2）一次教育会议对患者有关高血压相关知识的积极影响。改善患者对诸如血压水平和血压控制率等临床结果的教育的潜在作用需要未来的对照研究。人类高血压杂志（2001）15，57-61