Self help group activity in improving knowledge onelderly with hypertension in Jakarta, Indonesia

Background: Self-help group is one of the intervention groups with activities including exchanging ideas, overcoming problems, and mutual support among older people. Elderly people with hypertension are a vulnerable group and it is important to improve their health so they can maintain greater independence. Objective: This study aims to determine differences in knowledge, attitude, and behavior in older people with hypertension by self-help group intervention. Method: The research method used is non-equivalent pretest-posttest with the control group. Including intervention trainings and meetings for elderly hypertensive respondents. The samples were older people suffered from hypertension (45-59 and >60 y.o). Sampling method used random sampling resulted 44 respondents group as the intervention group and 42 respondents in the control group. Statistical test used independent t-test. Results: There are differences in hypertension knowledge between the intervention group and the control group after the intervention of self-help group (0.66 ± 3.27; p value 0.001). Conclusion: Self-help group’s intervention can serve as an important tool for health workers to implement education change that can empower elderly hypertension in the community.