Objective To evaluate effectiveness of guideline-oriented training for community healthcare workers (HCWs) with The Applied Standards for Hypertension Prevention and Control at the Grassroots to provide guidance to hypertension management in communities. Methods In 2003, four community health-care service centers in Beijing were selected and assigned as intervention (one at urban and one at rural) and control (one at urban and one at rural ) groups, respectively. HCWs in the intervention group received guideline-oriented training based on The Applied Standards for Hypertension Prevention and Control at the Grassroots, while HCW in the control group did not. All HCWs participated in tests of the knowledge of hypertension management using the same questionnaire before and after the training to analyze their changes in awareness scores with a full of 32. Results There were 39 and 33 HCWs in the intervention group and 15 and 16 HCWs in the control group, respectively at urban, and 30 and 33 HCWs in the intervention group and 21 and 22 HCWs in the control group, respectively at rural before and after the training were involved in the tests, respectively. After training, overall knowledge scores of hypertension prevention and control in HCWs in the intervention group at urban increased obviously, with an average score of 26 of 32 ( 81.0% ) after training from 15 of 32 (45. 6% ) before it ( P ＜ 0. 01 ) , with a net increase of 28.5% (9/32), as compared to HCWs in the control group. Those at rural increased to 6. 6% (20/32) after training from 40. 7% (13/32) before it ( P ＜ 0.01 ), with a net increase of 22. 2 percent (7/32), as compared to HCWs in the control group. Their awareness of knowledge of hypertension prevention and control significantly improved, with the most obviously in the target of blood pressure control (51.7% vs. 31.5% ) and principles of pharmaceutical therapy (42. 2% vs. 27. 6% ). Conclusions Guideline-oriented training based on The Applied Standards for Hypertension Prevention and Control at the Grassroots can effectively improve community HCWs' awareness of knowledge of hypertension management and should be widely promoted in communities.