Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: April | Volume: 7 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 418-422
Knowledge and Exposure to Risk Factors of Systemic Hypertension among Adult Residents of Ihiagwa, Southeastern Nigeria
Aguocha, N.A.1, Dozie, U.W.1, Okorie, O.M.1, Udeh, M.U.1, Azuamah, Y.C.2, Amadi, A.N.1
1Department of Public Health, Federal University of Technology, Owerri
2Department of Optometry, Federal University of Technology, Owerri
Corresponding Author: Aguocha, N.A
ABSTRACT
Systemic hypertension can be associated with increased risk of strokes, heart attacks, atherosclerosis, kidney failure, and cerebral hemorrhage. This research was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out to determine the knowledge and exposure to risk factors of systemic hypertension by resident adults of Ihiagwa community, Southeastern Nigeria. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to choose participants for the study. The residents that gave an informed consent to be part of the study were assembled at town halls and were interviewed using a well-structured questionnaire. An electronic sphygmomanometer was used to measure the blood pressure of the subjects. A total of 400 subjects comprising 134 (33.5%) males and 266 (66.5%) females were used for this study. Results showed that two hundred and twenty (55.0%) subjects had a high blood pressure while 140 (45.0%) had a normal blood pressure. On the question of hearing any information on hypertension, 148 (37.0%) said yes and 252 (63.0%) said no; 176 (44.0%) had knowledge of hypertension, 224 (56.0%) had no knowledge of hypertension; the level of knowledge of hypertension was high among 66 (16.5%) subjects, medium among 28 (7.0%) subjects and low among 306 (76.5%) subjects; 140 (35.0%) subjects attained primary education, 180 (45.0%) attained secondary education, and 80 (20.0%) attained tertiary education. Also 260 (65.0%) subjects responded “yes” to alcohol intake while 140 (35.0%) responded “no”; 218 (54.5%) said “yes” to tobacco smoking and 182 (45.5%) said “no”. In conclusion, there was a poor level of knowledge of hypertension and a high exposure to the risk factors of hypertension among adult residents of Ihiagwa community, Southeastern Nigeria. Adequate health promotion and an improvement of the socioeconomic conditions of people in the rural communities were recommended toward the prevention of systemic hypertension.
Keywords: Hypertension, Knowledge, Risk factors, Exposure, Blood Pressure
[PDF Full Text]