Self-care among Filipinos in the United States who have hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Despite the strong literature on the influence of self-care on hypertension (HTN) diagnosis, there is a notable lack of studies that explore self-care among Filipino immigrants in the United States (US) who have HTN.

AIM: To determine the levels of and relationships between and among acculturation, acculturative stress, HTN self-efficacy, patient activation, and HTN self-care among first generation Filipino immigrants in the US who have HTN.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional correlational design was used to determine the relationships between and among acculturation, acculturative stress, HTN self-efficacy, patient activation, and HTN self-care using the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. One hundred and sixty-three community-dwelling first-generation Filipino immigrants participated in the study.

METHODS: Data on HTN self-care, acculturation, acculturative stress, HTN self-efficacy, and patient activation were collected.

RESULTS: The study results revealed that HTN self-efficacy and patient activation significantly contributed to the regression model that accounted for 29.5% of the variance in HTN self-care for this sample. Further analysis revealed that patient activation had a mediating role between HTN self-efficacy and HTN self-care.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study revealed that HTN self-efficacy and patient activation were associated with self-care behaviors associated with HTN management for this sample.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Findings from this study highlight the importance of addressing HTN self-efficacy and patient activation in improving HTN self-care for this population.