The aim of this study was to increase patients' adherence to the treatment of hypertension through the consultation training of nurses. Thirty-three nurses were included in the study. In the intervention group (IG), 19 nurses took part in a three-day residential training course on the Stages of Change model, Motivational Interviewing and guidelines for cardiovascular prevention, and recruited 153 patients. Sixteen nurses in the control group (CG) recruited 59 patients. A decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and total cholesterol was noticed in both groups over the two years.Heart rate (p=0.027), body mass index (p=0.019), weight (p=0.0001), waist (p=0.041), LDL-cholesterol (p=0.0001), the waist hip ratio (p=0.024), and perceived stress (p=0.001) decreased to any great extent only in the IG. After two years, 52.6% of the patients in the IG (p=0.13) reached the target of ≤ 140/90 mmHg in blood pressure compared with 39.2% in the CG. For self-reported physical activity there was a significant (p=0.021) difference between the groups. The beneficial effects of the consultation training on patients' weight-parameters, physical activity, perceived stress and the proportion of patients who achieved blood pressure control emphasise consultation training and the use of behavioural models in motivating patients to adhere to treatment.

Almost all parents in Sweden are invited to parental groups organized by the child health service (CHS) during their child's first year, but only 40% chose to attend. The aim of this study was to describe parents' experiences of participating in these parental groups. A total of 143 parents from 71 different parental groups at 27 child health-care (CHC) centres in one Swedish county completed an online questionnaire. A majority of the parents found the parental groups to be meaningful and more than 60% met someone in the group who they socialized with outside the meetings. Parents wanted a greater focus on child-related community information, existential questions, relationships and parenting in general. Group leadership seems to be of significance to how parents in a group connect and whether the parental role is affected. Making CHC nurses more aware of the topics parents desire could help them meet parents' needs. Education and training in group dynamics and group leadership could be of value in further improving the high-quality service CHC nurses already offer parents. More knowledge is needed about what would attract those parents who do not participate.

Counselling following a hypertension programme gives hypertensive patients a chance to execute lifestyle changes and have their medication adjusted to achieve goals for blood pressure control. Further prospective studies in this area, with well-defined intervention approaches and several years of follow up, are necessary.

Managing parental groups during early childhood: New challenges faced by Swedish child health-care nurses.Lefevre, Åsa; Lundqvist, Pia; Drevenhorn, Eva; Hallström, Inger General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal AbstractThe purpose of this study was to describe child health centre (CHC) nurses' views of managing parental groups during early childhood. All 311 CHC nurses working within the Swedish CHC system in one county were asked to complete a web-based questionnaire. Findings showed that although the CHC nurses were experienced several found group leadership challenging and difficult. The need for specialized groups for young parents, single parents and parents whose first language was not Swedish was identified by 57% of the nurses. The CHC nurses found the participation of fathers in their parental groups to be low (an estimate of 10 to 20%) and 30% of the nurses made special efforts to make the fathers participate. Education in group dynamics and group leadership can strengthen CHC nurses in managing parental groups. It is recommended that specialized parental groups are organized by a few family centres so CHC nurses can develop their skill in managing such groups.

Patient participation in the consultations increased after the training. The importance of non-pharmacological treatment was mentioned more frequently for all areas of lifestyle behaviour, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, food and stress, and the nurses acquired a more distinct structure for their consultations. The mean length of the recorded consultations increased from 18 min to 20.5 min. All the criteria for fulfillment of attention to patient's readiness to change were met in nine consultations before the training and in seven after it. After the training, attention was paid to support more frequently than before in the action and maintenance stages and a great deal of information was provided.