Educational intervention performed by nurses for blood pressure control: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective: to assess the effect of an educational intervention performed by nurses for blood pressure control in people with arterial hypertension, when compared to usual care. Method: a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials, conducted in six databases. The studies included were those in which an educational intervention was performed by nurses on people with arterial hypertension. The risk of bias was assessed by means of the Risk of Bias Tool, the meta-analysis was performed in the Review Manager software and certainty of the evidence was calculated in the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. Results: a total of 1,692 studies were found, which were peer-reviewed, including eight of them in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis was calculated for the “systolic blood pressure” and diastolic blood pressure” outcomes, in subgroups by time and by intervention performance type. For the in-person educational intervention, performed individually combined with a group activity, the effect estimate was -12.41 mmHg (95% Confidence Interval: from -16.91 to -7.91, p<0.00001) for systolic pressure and -5.40 mmHg (95% Confidence Interval: from -7.98 to -2.82, p<0.0001) for diastolic pressure, with high certainty of evidence. Conclusion: the educational intervention performed by nurses, individually and combined with a group activity, presents a statistically significant clinical effect. PROSPERO registration No.: CRD42021282707