Self-blood pressure monitoring (SBPM) at
home creates greater awareness and patient participation
in their treatment prevents hypertensive complications
and helps facilitate doctors to make decisions on
treatment. A study was conducted to assess the
knowledge on self-blood pressure monitoring (SBPM)
among hypertensive patients in selected wards of
Hospital Lam Wah Ee, Malaysia. The results showed only
21 (32.3%) respondents monitored their blood pressure
and 44 (67.7%) did not monitor their blood pressure at
home. A total of 12 (18.4%) respondents reported that
they monitored their blood pressure at home because
they were aware of complications of hypertension. From
those respondents who did not monitor blood pressure
at home, only 13 (29.5%) respondents planned to carry
out SBPM at home in the future. The overall knowledge
score results for self-blood pressure monitoring showed
that 6 (9.2%) subjects scored 8 and above, 42 (64.6%)
scored 5-7, and 17 (26.1%) scored less than 4. The
findings from the study will help the nurses understand
the level of knowledge on SBPM among hypertensive
patients, and include training and health education
during hospitalisation reinforcing the importance and
the technique of performing SBPM at home. It also
helps to identify patients with poor control of blood
pressure so that they can be referred to the physician for
further treatment.