Effect on blood pressure of a continued nursing intervention using chronotherapeutics for adult Chinese hypertensive patients.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES (1) To explore the effect of continued nursing intervention on hypertensive patients based on chronotherapeutics. (2) To identify the factors affecting hypertensive patients' compliance to the chronotherapeutics-oriented nursing interventions. BACKGROUND Chronotherapy provides a means of individual treatment for hypertension according to the circadian blood-pressure profile of each patient and constitutes a new option in optimising blood-pressure control and reducing risk from hypertension. DESIGN Experimental study. METHODS All participants enrolled were randomly divided into the intervention group and the control group and they all took antihypertensive medicine prescribed by their doctors under ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. According to individual ambulatory blood pressure monitoring measures, interventions were implemented. RESULTS (1) There were significant differences in blood pressure and compliance to chronotherapeutics between the two groups before and after the intervention. (2) Single variant and multiple factors analysis revealed different characteristics influencing chronotherapeutic compliance of hypertensive patients. CONCLUSIONS Under ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, continued nursing intervention for hypertensive patients guided by chronotherapeutics could effectively improve blood-pressure control and chronotherapeutic compliance. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Health care providers who deal with Chinese hypertensive patients can improve patients' therapeutic compliance and blood pressure control guided by chronotherapeutics. According to different influencing factors on patients' chronotherapeutic compliance nurses should pay more attention to those whose compliance might be worse.