Methods Study design. A descriptive, qualitative study with in-depth interviews was used to uncover the perceptions of adherence to preventive behaviors among Thai persons with prehypertension. 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. In total, nine people with prehypertension agreed to participate in the study. Four men and five women ranging from 39 to 72 years in age (average 55 years) participated. Five of them were married; five had completed primary school and four were able to read and write. The majority of the women were farmers and housewives, while the majority of the men were retailers or retired. Most of them had succeeded in adhering to exercise and stress management (Table 1).