Results from this nurse-led empowerment-based
intervention suggest that this model for patient
care holds promise in improving cardiovascular
outcomes, such as blood pressure, and other components
of metabolic syndrome in patients with
hypertension. Although previous lifestyle modifi
cation programs have shown improvements in
blood pressure control (Appel et al., 2003; Burke
et al., 2007; Elmer et al., 2006), the current study
was innovative in that it demonstrated a decrease
in metabolic syndrome risk factors in a relatively
short period compared to the prior studies, which
lasted as long as 4–6 months or more.
The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the
current patients with hypertension was about
66% at baseline, which was twofold higher than