KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE ABOUT HYPERTENSION AND DIETARY PRACTICES AMONG ANTI HYPERTENSIVE MEDICATION USERS OF URLABARI MUNICIPALITY, MORANG

Abstract

A community based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice about hypertension and dietary practices among antihypertensive medication users of Urlabari Municipality, Morang. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data of 189 clinically diagnosed patients of hypertension who were taking anti-hypertensive drugs for more than 6 months. Dietary intake was assessed using 24-hour dietary recall and food frequency questionnaire. Data collected was analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) v25. Chi-square test and correlation tests were used for necessary analysis. The analysis revealed that the prevalence of hypertension is higher in male and increase in age is statistically significantly associated with prevalence of hypertension. The blood pressure ranged from 120-190 for systolic blood pressure and 70-110 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure. The study revealed that 93.70%, 95.2% and 10.1% of the patient had a good knowledge, attitude and acceptable practice score respectively. Most of the respondents knew that overweight/obesity (92.06%), alcohol consumption (94.18%) and higher salt intake (91%) as risk factors of hypertension. Positive attitude regarding medicine intake and regularly exercising were found in 98.94% and 96.81% respectively. However, 21.69% never performed any sorts of exercises. 24.87% and 46.56% of respondents smoked daily and never consumed alcoholic beverages. Despite good knowledge and attitude towards healthy lifestyle habits, practice of lifestyle modification among hypertensive patients is low. Therefore, it is recommended to initiate awareness and educational interventions aimed at these respondents.