Supporting Older Adults With Hypertension Through the RAVS Model Autosuggestion Intervention to Support Blood Pressure Control

Hypertension in older adults requires management that focuses not only on medical therapy but also on self-management abilities, stress management, adherence to treatment, and social support. This community service activity aimed to strengthen older adults' abilities to support hypertension management through the application of the RAVS Autosuggestion Model (Reframing, Relaxation, Affirmation, Visualization, and Spirituality Reflection). The activity was conducted in Daon Village, Rajeg Subdistrict, Tangerang Regency, involving 27 older adults with support from Posbindu community health volunteers and families. The method used a Participatory Community Empowerment approach through three stages: preparation, implementation, and evaluation. Implementation included hypertension education, RAVS demonstrations and practice, support over 4 weeks comprising 12 sessions, monitoring, and evaluation through measurements of knowledge, blood pressure, quality of life, treatment adherence, and RAVS implementation achievements. The results showed relatively good RAVS implementation achievements, with the highest score for relaxation and breathing (3.31) and the lowest for understanding the material (2.92). Knowledge scores increased from 2.07 to 2.65 at the final measurement, while blood pressure changed from 144.59/85.37 mmHg at baseline to 131.48/78.19 mmHg at the last measurement. Treatment adherence scores increased from 2.02 to 3.88, and quality of life increased from 1.94 to 2.85. In addition, at least five Posbindu community health volunteers were trained to support assistance for older adults. These results indicate that RAVS has the potential to serve as a supportive psychospiritual approach in the community-based empowerment of older adults with hypertension. These findings need to be interpreted as changes during program implementation, rather than as evidence of a causal relationship, because this activity did not use a comparison group