Arterial hypertension: lessons from patient education.

The face of hypertension has been changing rapidly over the last few decades, from a serious disease to a cardiovascular risk factor. Patient education has been instrumental in bringing about tremendous improvements in hypertension-related mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, and life quality. Patient education has evolved from an adjunct to medical therapy to an intervention in its own right. In this process patient education tasks and techniques themselves have undergone remarkable developments, driven by evolving patient needs due to medical progress. The same is true for the roles of patients and health care providers. Dealing with hypertension is a behavior change process which demands serious learning efforts from all parties involved, patients, health practitioners and health care administrators alike. This paper focuses therefore on patient education for preventive behavior change and risk factor management. Special emphasis will be placed on processes and tools for effective patient education.