Abstract:

Service and learning (SL) is an active pedagogical methodology that provides students with opportunities to learn in real-world contexts. Students participate in the community by performing social services and improving important social needs. SL benefits students, teachers, communities, and educational/academic institutions. Arterial hypertension (AHT) is a serious global public health problem and its diagnosis is made by recording blood pressure. Since blood pressure can be easily modified with daily activity, its measurement is not easy and erroneous records may be obtained. "Stop Hypertension with APS/UCM" is an SL project designed to address the health management of AHT. Its objective is to raise awareness among the population about the severity of AHT and train them in the correct self-measurement of blood pressure at home (SMBP). This project is framed in the guidelines of the PAHO/WHO HEARTS initiative in the Americas and follows the guidelines of the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) and the Spanish Society of Hypertension and the Fight Against AHT (SEH-LELHA). Because AHT increases with age, reaching its prevalence in up to 74% in people over 80 years old, the elderly are considered the most vulnerable age group. This study analyzes the results of the intervention of students from degrees in health sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) to educate and train older people in the correct use of SMBP at centers for seniors of the Alcobendas City Council of Madrid. The UCM has agreements with the Alcobendas City Council of Madrid allowing students to conduct their interventions in its centers. Twenty-five health science students from the Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Nutrition and Dietetics degrees have trained and educated seniors from five senior centers in Alcobendas. Teachers from the UCM tutored and accompanied the students during the delivery of the workshops. SMBP talks, workshops and demonstrations were held and demographic data, blood pressure records and satisfaction surveys have been collected from the elderly. New cases of AHT and hypertensive patients with low adherence to treatment were identified. The results of the survey conducted among the attendees reached a very high score (5 on the Likert scale) indicating a high degree of satisfaction with all the activities of our workshop. The senior citizens expressed high satisfaction with the workshop environment (92%) and the acquisition of correct blood pressure and SMBP learning (90%). We have verified that our project is an effective educative tool for training the elderly in SMBP. "Stop Hypertension with APS/UCM" could serve as an effective, low-cost tool to train patients in SMBP, thus contributing to the fight against AHT and supporting the National Health System in achieving sustainable development goals.

Keywords:

Service-learning project, arterial hypertension, correct self-measurement of blood pressure at home, training older people, university degrees, community service.