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Background: Hypertension is a common and frequently occurring chronic disease of the cardiovascular system. Besides the pathological factors, the occurrence and exacerbation of hypertension are also associated with many factors of lifestyle and behaviors. Thus hypertensive patients' Health-related quality of life (HRQL) is not only influenced by the disease itself but also by many subjective factors such as health literacy and self-management efficacy, especially in the deeper part of southwestern China and thus is less developed compared to the other places. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the HRQL of hypertensive patients and health literacy and self-management efficacy as well as how they affect the HRQL, so as to provide a theoretical reference for improving the HRQL of patients with hypertension in less developed areas. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of baseline data from a clustered randomized controlled trial. The study design had passed a cross-national peer review and accepted grants by the China Medical Board. It was also registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-OOR-14005563). A standardized questionnaire adapted from a previous validated WHO questionnaire was used for the survey which included detailed questions about patient's socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported information. Patients' HRQL was measured by the Mandarin version of the 36-item Short Form. We used the validated Mandarin version of the Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Disease 6-Item Scale to assess patients' self-management efficacy. The validated three-item Brief Health Literacy Screening (BHLS) was used to measure the patients' health literacy. A structural equation model was constructed, and p ≤ 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Demographic characteristics, health literacy and self-management efficacy have all significant effects on HRQL. Age, education level, self-management efficacy and health literacy were significantly related to the HRQL. The constructed model had a good fit for the data according to the model fit indices. Based on the model, health literacy (r = 0.604, p = 0.029) and Self-management efficacy (r = 0.714, p = 0.018) have a significant impact on HRQL. Demographic characteristics were inversely related to HRQL (r = -0.419, p = 0.007), but have a significant impact on health literacy (r = 0.675, p = 0.029) and self-management efficacy (r = 0.379, p = 0.029). At the same time, self-management efficacy was positively correlated to health literacy (r = 0.413, p <0.01). Conclusions: Age, education level, self-management efficacy and health literacy were all related to the HRQL of patient with hypertension, which means that patients who are more elderly and have lower education level, low self-management efficacy and poor health literacy get worse HRQL. This may imply the necessary to introduce routine assessment of health literacy and self-management efficacy into assessment procedures for hypertensive patients' health management. Such assessment can help professionals to identify the population at greatest risk for poor health outcomes and low well-being in the future. In clinical practice, effective interventions such as direct guidance and education to raise the self-management efficacy and enhance health literacy might improve the HRQL of patients with hypertension. Trial registration: Retrospectively registered Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-OOR-14005563). Name of registry: Effects of the integrated delivery system and payment system of community-based intervention on rural patients of chronic diseases in Qianjiang District, China Date of registration: Retrospectively registered 23 November 2014. Date of enrolment of the first participant to the trial: 5 July 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hypertension affects one billion people globally and is one of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular and renal diseases. However, hypertension management remains poor, especially in rural China.Methods: A clustered randomized controlled trial was conducted in six towns in China's Qianjiang county between 7/2012 and 6/2014, including 5462 hypertension patients above 35 years old. Six towns were randomly assigned to three groups: Group 1 had the integrated care model including a multidisciplinary team and continuous care coordination, Group 2 had both the integrated care model and provider-level financial incentives, and the control group had the usual care. Primary outcomes were systolic blood pressure and health-related quality of life measured by SF36; secondary outcomes included hypertension-related hospitalization rate and inpatient spending. Blood pressure was measured sixteen times bimonthly between 12/1/2011 and 6/30/2014, and quality of life was measured on 7/1/2012 and 6/30/2014. Inpatient data between 7/1/2010 and 8/31/2014 were used. This trial is registered at the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry, number ChiCTR-OOR-14005563.Results: We found that the integrated care model effectively lowered blood pressure by 1.93 mmHg (95% CI 0.063-3.8), improved self-assessed health-related quality of life, and reduced the rate of hypertension-related hospitalization by 0.17 percentage points (95% CI 0.094-0.24). We also found that the provider-level financial contract further lowered blood pressure by 1.76 mmHg (95% CI 0.73-2.79) and reduced rates of hospitalization and inpatient spending, but it also reduced patients' self-assessed health-related quality of life.Conclusions: Integrated care and financial incentives are effective in lowering blood pressure and reducing hospitalization rate, but financial contracts may hurt patient quality of life. This trial was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-OOR-14005563) on November 23, 2014. It was a retrospective registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Continuity of care is widely considered a principle of primary care that decreases healthcare utilization and mortality. However, the effect of continuity of care on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for adult patients with hypertension remains unclear. Methods: To further evaluate the effect of continuity of care, we implemented a cohort study among hypertensive patients aged over 35 years (n = 1200) in six townships in Qianjiang District, Chongqing, China, between 2012 and 2014. The study ultimately included 1079 participants. The continuity of care index was calculated using claim-based longitudinal data obtained from hypertension follow-up service records. The baseline and endline survey-based data, tested by the SF-36 scale, were used to assess HRQoL. To control selection bias and examine the effect of continuity of care, a kernel-based propensity score matching difference-in-differences (DID) method was used. Additionally, descriptive statistics, chi-squared test, and Mann-Whitney nonparametric test were used to summarize characteristics, evaluate proportional differences, and analyze statistical differences, respectively. Results: Our results showed that patients in the high continuity of care group presented greater improvement in both Physical Component Summary (PCS, DID = 5.192 ± 1.970, p < 0.001) and Mental Component Summary (MCS, DID = 7. 900 ± 1.815, p = 0.008) than those in the low continuity of care group. Moreover, patients in the high continuity of care group showed significant improvement in physical functioning, role-physical, general health, role-emotional, and mental health. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a long-term physician-patient relationship may improve HRQoL in patients with hypertension. However, more unified measurement tools are needed to evaluate continuity of care. Further studies should include more study settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Integrative strategy of health services delivery has been proven to be effective in economically developed countries, where the healthcare systems have enough qualified primary care providers. However rural China lacks such providers to act as gatekeeper, besides, Chinese rural hypertensive patients are usually of old age, more likely to be exposed to health risk factors and they experience a greater socio-economic burden. All these Chinese rural setting specific features make the effectiveness of integrative strategy of health services in improving health related quality of life among Chinese rural hypertensive patients uncertain. Methods: In order to assess the impact of integrative strategy of health services delivery on health related quality of life among Chinese rural hypertensive patients, a two-year quasi-experimental trial was conducted in Chongqing, China. At baseline the sample enrolled 1006 hypertensive patients into intervention group and 420 hypertensive patients into control group. Physicians from village clinics, town hospitals and county hospitals worked collaboratively to deliver multidisciplinary health services for the intervention group, while physicians in the control group provided services without cooperation. The quality of life was studied by SF-36 Scale. Blood pressures were reported by town hospitals. The Difference-in-Differences model was used to estimate the differences in SF-36 score and blood pressure of both groups to assess the impact. Results: The study showed that at baseline there was no statistical difference in SF-36 scores between both groups. While at follow-up the intervention group scored higher in overall SF-36, Role Physical, Body Pain, Social Functioning and Role Emotional than the control group. The Difference-in-Differences result demonstrated that there were statistical differences in SF-36 total score (p = 0.011), Role Physical (p = 0.027), Social Functioning (p = 0.000), Role Emotional (p = 0.002) between both groups. Integrative services delivery improved the score of SF-36 by 4.591 ± 1.794, and also improved the score in domains of Role Physical, Social Functioning and Role Emotional by 8.289 ± 3.753, 9. 762 ± 2.019 and 12.534 ± 4.083, respectively. Conclusion: Patients in the intervention group obtained lower systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Integrative strategy of health services delivery improved health related quality of life and blood pressure control among rural Chinese hypertensive patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interruption of the descending aorta is an extremely rare great vessel malformation. In this report, we describe a very unusual case of a 29-year-old female with a 13-year history of hypertension who was found to have an interruption of the descending aorta when she was hospitalized with a subarachnoid hemorrhage and symptoms of acute paraplegia. We successfully surgically corrected the defect using a Gore-Tex® graft to bypass the aortic interruption. The patient's blood pressure postoperatively returned to normal, and the patient recovered completely from her paraplegia by the time of her 5-month follow-up visit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]