Published online Dec 26, 2022. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v14.i12.626
Peer-review started: August 13, 2022
First decision: September 5, 2022
Revised: September 11, 2022
Accepted: November 22, 2022
Article in press: November 22, 2022
Published online: December 26, 2022
Processing time: 127 Days and 10.9 Hours
In the unprecedented times of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many offices were shut down all across the world. Onsite classes and events were postponed. As a result, the educational health campaign has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby the health campaign is undertaken remotely by digital platforms. With this sudden shift away from the conventional campaign, in many parts of the globe, some are wondering whether the adoption of virtual learning will continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the perception and transfer of knowledge towards hypertensive patients. To keep the community safe, but still well-informed about the dangers of hypertension and how to build a healthy lifestyle, we decided to create a Virtual Anti-Hypertensive Educational Campaign.
The importance of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Virtual Anti-Hypertensive Educational Campaign towards knowledge, attitude, and the practice of hypertension management in the primary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our teams designed a virtual anti-hypertensive educational campaign curriculum for community health care advocates in the community health care of the Mojo District, Surabaya, Indonesia to identify and prevent health risks of hypertension. The first goal is to conduct research on the risks of hypertension and identify an educational model for community health advocates. The second goal is to educate people to improve health literacy in the field of hypertensive healthy plans. The virtual anti-hypertensive educational campaign aimed to help dispel misinformation while promoting healthy lifestyle recommendations and medical guidelines set by the Ministry of Health of the Indonesian Government and Indonesian Cardiologist Association. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of the virtual anti-hypertensive educational campaign towards knowledge, attitude, and the practice of hypertension management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trial was a randomized double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover design. The study was completed over 6 mo duration (1 October 2020-30 April 2021) of the virtual anti-hypertensive educational campaign with randomization (1 mo); treatment period one (2 mo); washout (1 mo); and finally, treatment period two (2 mo). Subjects were randomly assigned among patients with established hypertension using a pre-test post-test-controlled group design. This study was conducted in October-December 2020 in the Mojo District of Surabaya City. We conducted an online survey from October to December 2020. The survey involved an online questionnaire that was distributed virtually, by email or by WhatsApp and social media, to more than 500 hypertensive patients in the Mojo district of Surabaya, Indonesia, to which 110 participants actively replied. The questionnaire was self-administered without intervention by the authors or any specific person, and it did not contain any identifying data of the participants to ensure confidentiality. Questionnaires with incomplete information or missing data were excluded from the analysis. Completed paper questionnaires were collected anonymously to ensure confidentiality and to prevent any response bias. Unreturned or uncompleted questionnaires were recorded as missing. Participants were not aware of the study aim or outcomes to reduce the risk of any possible bias. The survey included only hypertensive patients who were living in the Mojo district of Surabaya city.
A total of 110 participants were included in the analysis, 55 in the intervention group and 55 in the control group. Following the Virtual Anti-Hypertensive Educational Campaign implementation, the only parameter that showed significant improvement were knowledge and attitude (P < 0.001). There is no significant change in the practice parameters (P = 0.131).
The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for healthcare providers to deliver health education to the society, even during the new normal era. Remote and virtual options that align with the WHO’s social distancing guidelines are essential for the continuation of health education. Creating a virtual health education program takes time and does not happen overnight. It requires sources, funding, and precise guidelines. It is like telemedicine applied to society. The different background of subjects in the society poses a unique challenge to the maintenance of quality of information transmitted to the subjects in these pandemics. It should be remembered that conducting virtual health education programs may be better than doing nothing during this pandemic. This study relied on online questionnaires, suggesting that virtual anti-hypertensive educational campaigns may be effective in transforming knowledge and attitude, yet may not be effective to improve the practice of hypertension management in the society. It is concluded that multiple experts from different fields are needed to work together addressing this issue and put their suggestions into practice.
The Department of Cardiology and Vascular Medicine created a virtual education series about healthy lifestyle and dietary guidelines that refers to Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension by adapting the local wisdom of the Surabaya community. We aimed to evaluate the impact of the Virtual Anti-Hypertensive Educational Campaign towards knowledge, attitude, and the practice of hypertension management in the primary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic.