Abstract

Aim.The aim of this paper is to review studies related to self-care education and quality of life improvement in patients with hypertension.

Background. Hypertension is one of the greatest health problems in the world and also, one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. One of the main aims of health care is improving quality of life. Self-care education can improve the quality of life. Due to the need for recognizing trend of studies related to self-care education and quality of life in patients with hypertension, conducting literature review in this field is necessary.

Method. This article reviews the studies published during the recent 15 years regarding self-care education and quality of life in patients with hypertension that were searched out through scientific databases, including Science Direct, PubMed, Cochrane, Medline, SID, Scopus, CINAHL, OVID, Iran Doc, and Magiranby the keywords “self-care educational program”, “quality of life”, and “hypertensive patients” and their Persian equivalents.

Result. The literature review revealed that few studies have examined the effectiveness of training programs on the quality of life in patients with hypertension. Results showed that patients with hypertension have low quality of life. In some studies, different educational methods were used in an attempt to improve the clinical outcomes of patients and some of these self-care educational programs had positive effects on the quality of life.

Conclusion. The quality of life in patients with hypertension is low. Therefore, because of the importance of quality of life improvement and due to the limitations of the studies, it is essential to conduct further research to investigate the effect of self-care educational program on quality of life in patients with hypertension.