Hypertension in Saudi Arabia: Assessing Life Style and Attitudes

Abstract

Background: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet lowers blood pressure (BP) effectively. There is evidence that strongly supports the concept that lifestyle modification has powerful effect on BP. DASH diet includes increased physical activity, reduced salt intake, weight loss, increased potassium intake, and an overall healthy dietary pattern. This study assesses the knowledge and attitudes of Saudis in Riyadh City towards lifestyle and hypertension.
 Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed using a questionnaire-based assessment tool, which included sociodemographic data, knowledge and lifestyle attitude with hypertension, such as dietary factors, stress, smoking, physical activities, diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes mellitus. Statistical analyses included frequency, percentile, and chi-square test.
 Results: Out of total 934 participants, 13.6% were hypertensive; 84.4% and 60.2% of participants believed eating salty food and fatty food, respectively, was risk factors for hypertension. Almost 65.8% of participants considered stress as a risk factor for the development of hypertension, whereas 77.0% considered smoking as a risk factor. The data showed that 87.5% considered obesity as a risk factor, and 73.8% considered reducing weight as a preventive measure for hypertension. Also, 68.8% believed that physical inactivity was a risk factor for hypertension. Data showed that 16.6 % ate vegetables and 23.1% ate fruits as recommended, whereas 18.8% and 18.4%, respectively, rarely ate vegetables and fruits. About 12.1% smoked and 19.7% exercised regularly, whereas 15.6% did not exercise at all. Traffic and examination were reported as stress factors by younger participants whereas older participants reported chronic diseases as stressors.
 Conclusion and Implications for Translation: The knowledge of the relationship between hypertension risk factors with eating salty food and fatty food was high, whereas knowledge of not eating vegetables and fruits as a risk factor for the development of hypertension was very low among the Saudis.
 Key words: • DASH • Hypertension • Life style • Knowledge • Saudi Arabia
 
 Copyright © 2020 Elbashir et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Patient journey for hypertension and dyslipidemia in Saudi Arabia: highlighting the evidence gaps

“…The prevalence reported from community-based settings were lower (14.0%–36.0%) [ 10 , 11 , 17 , 25 , 26 , 29 , 34 , 35 ] than in hospital-based settings (14.6%–41.8%) [ 24 , 30 , 31 ], which is indicative that a majority of patients visiting the PHCC were with underlying cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, hypertension being one of them. This was in agreement with the results from previous studies that also showed higher prevalence of hypertension (30.0%–92.0%) [ 44 , 45 ] in hospital settings compared with community-based studies (13.6%–26.1%) [ 46 , 47 ]. Additionally, other reasons may include differences in the study duration between the two settings and its corresponding effect on disease severity and differences in diagnostic practices across different locations [ 24 ].…”

Motivational quality and competence perceptions towards healthy diet practice in patients with non-communicable diseases in Central Saudi Arabia

“…Local research on diet patterns in clinical populations has reported low fruit and vegetable intake and high fat consumption in diabetic and HTN patients, as well as in nationwide studies in the general population. [28][29][30] Our results could confirm these rather poor dietary patterns across all patient groups. However, the available literature does not coincide with detected positive diet habits such as low sugar, fast food and snack consumption.…”

“…However, the available literature does not coincide with detected positive diet habits such as low sugar, fast food and snack consumption. [29][30][31] These findings suggest the need for dietary interventions to specifically focus on the increment of vegetable and fruit consumption and the reduction of cooking fat intake in patients with NCD in KSA. Intervention developers might also want to consider potential particularities within and between different disease groups.…”

“…Suboptimal dietary adherence has been previously reported for HTN, as well as diabetic patients, handicapping the attempt to retrieve evidence for the detected phenomenon in the available literature. 29,30 A possible reason for the detected disease-dietary gap might be routed in the standardized disease-specific exposure to health education. As part of their treatment plan, DM patients commonly receive comprehensive health education, while these efforts are attenuated for patients with other NCD.…”

Prevalence and Awareness of Hypertension among a Rural Jazan Population

“…According to prior research conducted in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, 90% of participants felt that excessive salt consumption was a risk factor; 89.1%, stress; 75.5%, obesity; and 62.1%, smoking [ 27 ]. Another study performed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, found that 84.4% and 87.5% of participants agreed that excessive salt consumption and obesity were risk factors for HTN, respectively [ 28 ]. Finally, the levels of awareness of HTN were worse in rural areas than in urban areas according to several studies conducted in Saudi Arabia and around the world [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 29 ].…”