Purpose: This purpose of this study was to
examine the effect of a walking exercise program
on blood pressure and related factors in older
patients with hypertension living in rural areas.
Method: The participants were 233 patients
with hypertension, 60years or age or over, who
were registered at one of 36 public health
centers in North Chung Cheong Province and
agreed to participate in this study. The program
was implemented for 12 weeks from Dec. 2005to
Feb. 2006. The data were collected before and
right after the program and paired t-test was
used to analyze the data. Analysis was done with
the SPSS program. Result: Systolic pressure
(t=7.460, p=0.000) and diastolic pressure (t=
5.309, p=0.000) decreased significantly. Total
cholesterol l (t=-9.991, p=0.000), LDL
cholesterol and HDL cholesterol (t=-3.180,
p=0.000) all increased significantly. There was
no change in weight or obesity level. Blood
sugar (t=2.218, p=0.028) decreased significantly.
Knowledge of hypertension increased significantly
as did the self-care behavior of these patients
with hypertension. Conclusion: The walking
exercise program was found to be effective to
control blood pressure in older patients with
hypertension in rural areas and to help HDL
cholesterol, knowledge of hypertension, and
self-care behavior of hypertension increase
greatly, while blood sugar level decreased.