Self-Care Management for Hypertension in Southeast Asia: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Background

Self-care practices such as lifestyle modifications in diet, exercise, and stress management are effective in reducing the incidence of and enhancing better management of hypertension. However, little is known about the self-care management practices of people with hypertension in Southeast Asia (SEA) countries where the prevalence of hypertension is sharply increasing.

Methods

A scoping review of research and grey literature (2006–2021) was performed using Scoping Review Frameworks by Arkey and O’Malley. For the research literature, ten databases were searched followed by a manual search of the reference lists of relevant topical papers. Criteria for inclusion included both qualitative and quantitative primary data studies, focused on adult (18 years and over) hypertensive patients, self-care management methods, conducted in SEA. The study protocol has been registered at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/s4nvk/).

Results

Out of 1667 studies examined, there were 57 studies that met criteria and were included in this review. Results indicate a paucity of relevant literature. Moreover, most studies reviewed showed an incident rate of 50% or more incidence of behavioural risk factors in people diagnosed with hypertension, including overweight/obesity, poor physical exercise, poor/low-quality dietary intake, and not adhering to medication. Few studies indicated adequate traditional self-care practice among SEA hypertension populations. Use of a non-prescription herbal as the medication is identified in some studies. Several reviewed articles indicated that there is individual variation in the facilitators and barriers to implementing self-care practices and we put it into a working framework. The facilitators and barriers are relevant to personal choice (internal factors) or to the environment or context (external factors). 

Conclusion

Enhancing self-care management of hypertension in SEA may require a multi-focused approach including targeting personal choice as well as external factors such as cultural relevance, environment, and resources.

Keywords:

• self-care hypertension
• facilitating and inhibiting factors
• Southeast Asia countries

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express appreciation for UMCN librarians: Gurpreet Rana, MLIS and Kate Saylor, MSI to introduce Rayyan software and data searching.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the HHS, NIH/Fogarty International Center, 2D43 TW009883 D43 Post-Doctoral Program, School of Nursing, University of Michigan, USA.