Participants and setting. Participants were
purposively selected from three provinces of Southern
Thailand (Songkla, Nakron Si Thummarat, Suratthani).
The data was collected from one primary health care
unit in each province. Recruiting criteria for participants
for the in-depth interviews were persons: 1) identified
by their health care providers as having prehypertension;
2) receiving a preventive behavior intervention
routine from a health care provider; 3) participants
who have successful adherence behavior, being Thai
and aged 35 years or older who have been practicing
preventive behaviors regularly and have participated
in preventive behaviors for a minimum of 12 months;
and 4) able to understand and speak Thai fluently. To
gain access to participants the researcher asked health
personnel from primary health care units in the
selected areas and personnel in any preventive activity
groups to advertise this study. Potential participants
were initially screened using the above criteria and
then were given a brief description of the study by
health personnel. They then were contacted and
invited to participate in this study by the researcher
and health personnel. The sample of potential
participants was purposively drawn to select different
personal characteristics in terms of age, gender, level
of education, and. socio-economic status.