A Study of Awareness about �Nutrition in Hypertension� among College Teachers in a Semi Urban Town of South India

Abstract

Hypertension is reported to be the fourth contributor to premature death in developed countries and the seventh in developing countries. Recent reports indicate that nearly 1 billion adults (more than a quarter of the world's population) had hypertension in 2000, and this is predicted to increase to 1.56 billion by 2025. The main aim of the study is to find out the level of knowledge of nutritional therapy in hypertension among college teachers through a structured questionnaire and to impart the necessary awareness about the same. This study was based on questionnaire survey by scientifically tested random sampling procedure. The necessary approval for the study was obtained from the academic committee of the Government Arts College for men (autonomous). As the study is a simple questionnaire one, there are no ethical issues. The information was collected from 911 teachers working in colleges and higher institutions. The collected data were entered and analyzed with the help of SPSS software. Statistical tests included simple frequency, percentage and Pearson Correlation techniques which were performed for the collected data. This present study demonstrates that the majority of the respondents were aged either between 31-40 and 41-50 years. 47.4 per cent and 36.6 per cent of male and female were having hypertension respectively which is higher than the general population. According to the 'Suchitra's grading' of nutrition awareness, the level of knowledge in hypertension, 24.1 percent of the respondents are grade I, 26.5 percent grade II, 22.9 percent grade III and 26.5 percent grade IV. Its clear that college teachers lack awareness about nutrition in hypertension. The teachers who suffer from the disease i.e. hypertension had better awareness.Hypertension is reported to be the fourth contributor to premature death in developed countries and the seventh in developing countries. Recent reports indicate that nearly 1 billion adults (more than a quarter of the world's population) had hypertension in 2000, and this is predicted to increase to 1.56 billion by 2025.1 At this juncture, the college teachers form an essential element in transfer of vital information to the society. They can achieve this through student contact in their day to day work. Hence

Assessment of Basic Nutritional Status and Awareness to Good Food Habits of Pregnant Women in a Semi Urban Indian Town- Kumbakonam urban Rural Epidemiological Study- KURES -3

“…Such nutrition scales have also been introduced and validated by us about nutrition knowledge in hypertension. 9 In a community based cross sectional study of around 660 parturients by Nana et al, 10 the incidence of bad dietary practice among pregnant women in undeveloped country is 60.7%. But the yardstick was different.…”

A Study of Health and Wellness and its Knowledge among Non-Teaching Staffs of College of Applied Medical Sciences, AlMajmaah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…Present study clearly states that almost half the study population falls either in high risk or intermediate risk. Suchitra et al have also emphasized that lack of awareness would be the precipitating factor for conditions like hypertension 22 . This scenario indicates that the conduction of health education programs and awareness programs among the university non-teaching staffs is mandatory.…”

Effect of an Education Intervention on Knowledge of Junk Foods, Healthy Food Habits Among the School-Going Children at Selected Schools In Chennai, India – A Pre-Experimental Multicentric Trial.

“…But they did not intervene to get awareness results. The same authors [20][21] have found a 10% overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome; however, the rate of having any metabolic anomaly was 43%, with college students exhibiting at least one constituent of metabolic syndrome. Furthermore, 14.3% of students had two major components of metabolic syndrome.…”