Prevalence Rates of Self-Care Behaviors and Related Factors in a Rural Hypertension Population: A Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the self-care behaviors among hypertensive patients in primary care. A cross-sectional survey, with 318 hypertensive patients, was conducted in a rural area in Beijing, China, in 2012. Participants were mainly recruited from a community health clinic and completed questionnaires assessing their self-care behaviors, including data on adherence to a prescribed medication regimen, low-salt diet intake, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, blood pressure monitoring, and physical exercise. The logistic regression model was used for the analysis of any association between self-care behaviors and age, gender, duration of hypertension, self-rated health, marital status, education level, diabetes status, or body mass index. Subjects that adhered to their medication schedule were more likely to have hypertension for a long duration (OR, 3.44; 95% CI 1.99–5.97). Older participants (OR, 1.80; 95% CI 1.08–2.99) were more likely to monitor their blood pressure. Subjects who did not partake in physical exercise were more likely to be men, although the difference between genders was not significant (OR, 0.60; 95% CI 0.36–1.01). Patients with shorter history of hypertension, younger and being males have lower self-care behaviors. Primary care providers and public health practitioner should pay more attention to patients recently diagnosed with hypertension as well as younger male patients.

Lost in translation: dietary management of cardiovascular risk factors is seldom implemented

“…Sodium reduction associated with other dietary recommendations has been shown to be effective in reducing blood pressure levels (Bray et al, 2004;He et al, 2013;Sacks et al, 2001), although no effect of sodium reduction on cardiovascular or overall mortality has been found (DiNicolantonio et al, 2013;Taylor et al, 2011). In this study, only a small number of participants diagnosed with hypertension reported being on a low salt diet, a value lower than reported in other studies (Hu et al, 2013;Warren-Findlow and Seymour, 2011). A possible explanation is the difficulty in implementing low salt diets (He and MacGregor, 2010).…”

Uncontrolled hypertension and associated factors among adult hypertensive patients on follow-up at Jimma University Teaching and Specialized Hospital: cross-sectional study

“…[13][14][15][16] Moreover, financial and geographical accessibility of the available health institutions, the accessibility, and clinical practice of clinicians such as nurses and physicians together with the presence of essential medicines have been reported as essential factors in the control of high BP among health service-related factors. 15,16 Although attention has been given on processing strategies that improve adherence to treatment regimens like self-care behaviors for better BP control, [17][18][19] majority of the patients in health care facility received medication but not lifestyle education, indicating partial adherence to JNC7 guidelines. For instance, on average, only 30% of hypertension patients practice lifestyle modifications as a treatment of hypertension.…”

Knowledge and Attitude to Self-Monitoring Of Blood Pressure in a Cardiology Clinic in Nigeria

“…This is because, ownership of a BP machine reinforces the practice of SMBP. Hence, several studies posit that most patients depend on patent medicine dealers, nurses and pharmacist for home monitoring of blood pressure 6,8,9 and this accounts for about 37.5% 10 and 67.2% 11 of SMBP practices in patients .…”

“…This correlated with similar studies which showed that higher socioeconomic status and higher level of education were associated with better practice of SMBP. 2,6,7,8,9,10 . This relationship is worrisome especially in developing countries and other resource poor settings where optimal hypertension management may be hampered by economic factors.…”

“…6,11 Our findings also show that 88% of the patient's agreed that SMBP is important in optimal management of hypertension as stated in most studies. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] More so, only 41.2 % of the respondents agreed that there personal BP machine has been compared with a mercury sphygmomanometer . The importance of this validation is widely recommended for accurate measurement of blood pressure.…”