A Qualitative Study on Management Behaviors about Blood Pressure of Participants
in Moxibustion Clinical Trial for Hypertension

Moon, A-ji; Kim, Tae-jung; Lee, Seoung-geun; Kim, Nam-kwen; Lee, Key-sang

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine > Volume 33(4); 2012 > Article

Original Article

The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine 2012;33(4): 543-557.

고혈압-뜸 임상시험 참여자들의 혈압 관리행동에 대한 질적연구

문아지¹, 김태정¹, 이성근¹, 김남권², 이기상¹

¹원광대학교 산본 한방병원 심계내과
²원광대학교 산본 한방병원 안이비인후피부과

A Qualitative Study on Management Behaviors about Blood Pressure of Participants in Moxibustion Clinical Trial for Hypertension

A-ji Moon¹, Tae-jung Kim¹, Seoung-geun Lee¹, Nam-kwen Kim², Key-sang Lee¹

¹Dept. of Cardiovascular and Neurologic diseases, Sanbon oriental medical center of Won-Kwang University
²Dept. of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology & Dermatology, Sanbon oriental medical center of Won-Kwang University

Correspondence

Key-sang Lee ,Tel: 031-390-2670, Fax: 031-390-2599, Email: keysang@wonkwang.ac.kr

Published online: December 30, 2012.

ABSTRACT

Objectives:
The purpose of this study which adopted a qualitative method was to evaluate blood pressure management behaviors of pre- and stage 1 hypertension patients and to provide fundamental data for developing a strategy about proper oriental medical treatment through analyzing factors related to a moxibustion clinical trial.

Methods :
Semi-structured interviews that focused on personal experiences with hypertension and its management were conducted with 10 hypertensive patients. The interviews lasted for approximately 50 minutes.

Results:
Most participants recognized that the direct cause of high blood pressure was unhealthy behavior rather than inheritance. Thus, the hypertensive patient believed they could recover their blood pressure to a normal level through removing the direct cause of hypertension instead of taking drugs. The reasons for these statements were that the drugs for controlling hypertension are not natural and they may have side effects. On future management plan of patients, most of them will continue to keep moxibustion and healthy behavior in the well-controlled blood pressure group. However in the uncontrolled blood pressure group, there was an increasing tendency to begin medication.

Conclusions:
For developing a strategy for an individual approach to hypertension management, we need to develop a client-centered attitude and strategy. That is, we need to tailor our approach to individual cases to avoid generalizations and stereotyping when developing an adherence increasing strategy.

Key words: hypertension management, moxibustion, healthy behavior, qualitative method