BENEFITS OF A COMPUTER-ASSISTED EDUCATION-PROGRAM FOR HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS COMPARED WITH STANDARD EDUCATION TOOLS

ISIS (Initiation Sanitaire Informatisee et Scenarisee), a French compu ter-assisted hypertension and cardiovascular risk education program, w as developed to provide patients at cardiovascular risk with a modern interactive educational tool combining rigorously scientific informati on with the aesthetic attractiveness of multimedia communication. To t est the impact of this tool on patient health information retention, 1 58 hypertensives hospitalized for initial work-up (day hospital) or th erapeutic adjustments (3 days) were randomized into control(n = 79) an d ISIS (n = 79) groups. Both groups received cardiovascular education through standard means: physicians, nurses, dietitians and pamphlets. In addition, ISIS patients underwent a 30- to 60-min session on the co mputer with the ISIS program. Cardiovascular knowledge was tested by t he same investigator administering a standardized 28-item questionnair e before and 2 months after education. Retesting was made by telephone . At the time of first assessment, all patients were aware that they w ould be retested. A total of 138 completed questionnaires (69 from eac h group) was analyzed. Overall mean cardiovascular knowledge score bef ore education improved significantly after education. This improvement was greater in the ISIS than the control group. These results confirm the potential of computer-assisted education in hypertensives from a specialized center.