Community-Based Health Education and its Effects on African Americans
Community-Based Health Education and its Effects on African Americans
Date
2022
Authors
Gibson, Samantha S.
Malivert, Katelynn L.
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Abstract
The African American (AA) community has a high prevalence of uncontrolled chronic
hypertension (HTN). In this community, a lack of health knowledge contributes to inadequate
health maintenance of chronic conditions. Unmanaged HTN strongly correlates with life threatening complications in patients receiving anesthesia. A review of the literature suggests
that African Americans (AAs) have increased receptibility and improved knowledge with
community-based education models. Additionally, throughout the literature, preoperative
anesthetic education has been shown to improve patient knowledge before undergoing surgery.
Implementation of health education within areas of familiarity has shown to increase the
responsiveness to health modification. Our scholarly project utilized community-based
preoperative anesthetic education on HTN. This educational project evaluated the knowledge
base and retention of blood pressure maintenance and the risks of perioperative HTN
complications within our selected population.