Guidance effect of health culture atmosphere on hypertension prevention in Shandong and Henan province: a comparison study

  Objective  To compare guidance effect of health cultural atmosphere on hypertension prevention in Shandong and Henan province and to verify the feasibility of quantifying cultural guidance effect in chronic disease control and prevention.

  Methods  Through China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), we retrieved chronic disease prevention and control-related documents and reports and the data on prevalence of hypertension released by government agencies, medical institutions of Shandong and Henan province from 2008 through 2017. We quantitatively reviewed the information collected and analyzed the correlation between the publicity influence of the documents and reports and prevalence rate of hypertension in the populations of the two provinces.

  Results  During the period in Shandong province, the index for guidance effect of health cultural atmosphere on hypertension prevention increased from 21.37% to 24.18%; the index was inversely with hypertension prevalence rate (r = – 0.650, P < 0.05) and 42.2% (R² = 0.422) of the variation in the hypertension prevalence rate could be explained by the index. During the same period in Henan province, the index for the guidance effect increased from 38.19% to 38.28% and then decreased to 16.71% and no inverse correlation between the index and hypertension prevalence rate was observed (r = 0.735, P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  Although the influence of health cultural atmosphere on the prevention and control of hypertension is indirect with a lag, the preliminary effect of the influence has been observed in Shandong province. The study indicates that quantitatively evaluating guidance effect of health cultural atmosphere on chronic disease prevention and control is feasible.