STUDY OF PATIENTS KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS HYPERTENSION IN NORTH KARNATAKA, RAICHUR

Ashok Mahendraker, Rahul Sabbu*, Amal Thomas P., Richa Lucy, Pavani V., Doddayya H.

ABSTRACT

Background: Hypertension is a silent killer disease worldwide and proper assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) factors are helpful in its management. Our aim was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice among the hypertensive patients. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted among hypertensive patients from October 2018- March 2019 which was approved by Institutional ethics committee at NMCH & RC, Raichur. 90 hypertensive patients were enrolled in the study. Suitably designed validated KAP questionnaire was used to evaluate the baseline KAP score. Data entry and statistical analysis were performed using the Microsoft Excel and SPSS windows version 16.0 software. Independent sample t-test were used. Results: The mean age of the participants was 54.86 ± 9.95. Very few patients 11(12.20%) were aware about the complications of hypertension. Only 28 (31.10 %) respondents knew the benefits of exercise. Only 31(34.40%) patients were aware that obesity is associated with hypertension. The patients had a positive attitude towards reduction of salt intake 71(78.80%), regular medication 69(76.30%) and regular visit to physician 67(75.30%). Less number of patients were going for regular health check up’s and medical test including urine examination 11(12.20%), lipid profile 14 (15.50%) and blood glucose level 26(28.80%). Conclusion: Patients had good score towards attitude and poor score towards knowledge and practice towards hypertension. Therefore, proper education and awareness programs should be developed according to the need of the society which in turn would improve the knowledge of general population and will definitely bring about a positive change in attitude and practices.

Keywords: Questionnaire, Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Morbidity, Mortality.