In comparison to other ethnicities, African American women are at a higher risk for complications related to hypertension. There is a prevalence of increase body mass index (BMI) and obesity. There is a “strong association between race and BMI, with African-American women having generally higher BMI than white women”(Brittain, Taylor, & Wu, 2010, p. 788).
In African-America men, hypertension continues to increase due to lack of treatment and less physician contact. This leads to “low rates of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control and as a result, black men have the highest hypertension death rate of any United States race, ethnic, or gender group”(Rader, Elashoff, Niknezhad, & Victor, 2013, p. 1421). Access to specialized hypertension specialists has an impact on the care African American men receive.
African Americans, both men and women, have the same challenges when managing and treating hypertension. The Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC7), recommends that people with hypertension engage in six self-care activities, however, self-management with these activities is low among African Americans. The self-care activities and challenges …show more content…
Motivational interviewing is “a style of patient-centered counseling developed to facilitate change in health-related behaviors”(Simpson, 2015, p. 1). It is important to consider access to health care, knowledge of the cultures and subcultures and effective communication skills, when managing hypertension in African-Americans. Motivational interviewing promotes positive healthy behavioral outcomes by using educational teaching methods to encourage motivation for lifestyle change. This “evidence-based technique is patient-centered and engages listening, reflecting, and clarifying; employs the principle of enhancing motivation to change, and allows the patient to articulate the benefits and costs involved”(Simpson, 2015, p. 2). Interventions combine patient education, behavioral/counseling, and psychological/affective approaches with principles of self-efficacy, side stepping resistance, and building confidence. The basis is communication with the patient to identify readiness, willingness, and ability to change. The outcome of motivational interviewing depends on the patient’s responsiveness to the techniques