Background/Objective: Hypertension self care activities are important in the management of hypertension. This study aimed to access the Hypertension self care activities of hypertensive patients receiving care in a Secondary health care facility in Kogi state Nigeria.
Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study conducted among Hypertensive patients receiving care in the Kogi State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja, Kogi state. All hypertensive patients visiting the Kogi State Specialist Hospital during the period of study and have given consent were allowed to participate in the study. A profoma was designed to collect the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics like the blood pressure, weight(in Kilograms) and height (in meters) while the H-SCALE was used to collect information on self care activities. The data cleaning was conducted in Microsoft excel after which information were exported and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS for windows, Version 16.0. SPSS Inc. 2007.Chicago, USA) software.
Results: More than half of the patients under study 183 (61.4%) were adherent to the medication. However, almost all the patients 305 (99.1%) and 308 (100%) did not adhere to low salt diets and physical activity respectively. A majority of the patients 266 (87.0%) admitted not to be smoking while more than half of the patients 221 (63.1) did not follow good weight management practices. About three-fourths of these patients did not abstain from drinking alcohol. Although more of the males (31.5%) adhered to their medications more than the females (27.9%), this was not statistically significant. More of those who adhered to their medications, had a low salt diet, engaged in physical activity and weight management practices had a source of income. Patients who had obtained a formal education had a better medication adherence, adhered to low salt diets, engaged in weight management practices and smoked less when compared to those who had no formal education. Patients who adhered to their medication and engaged in weight management practices had a greater duration of hypertension and this was statistically significant.
Conclusion: In conclusion, adherence to hypertension self care activities is low. This could lead to an increased risk of hypertension related complications.
Key words: Hypertension, prevalence, self care activity, H-SCALE
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