Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Blood Pressure Control of Hypertensive Patients at a South African Primary Health Care Centre

Author Info

Akm Monjurul Hoque Somaya Buckus Nishen Nunan Maariyah Hoque ME Hoque Guido Van Hal

Corresponding Author

Akm Monjurul Hoque
Kwadabeka Community Health Centre, Kwadabeka, South Africa

A B S T R A C T

Hypertension is a serious global and South African public health problem. The high prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension is related to a patient’s lack of knowledge and healthy practices. The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hypertensive patients and their blood pressure control at a rural community health centre. This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted on diagnosed cases of hypertension at the centre. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors for the control of hypertension. Two hundred and ninety-seven known hypertensive patients were recruited, the majority of which were female. Eighty-eight percent were older than 45 years, and almost all had a monthly income of less than R3000 (USD 190). More than half controlled their blood pressure. It was found that 46% had poor knowledge, 64% had good attitudes and 60% were practising positively regarding the control of hypertension. Hypertensive patients attending the centre had poor knowledge but good attitudes and practices towards hypertension. The study revealed an urgent need for improved health promotion and educational efforts to increase the knowledge of hypertension in rural communities and to address poverty as a major obstacle to healthy lifestyle choices.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Thu 22, Oct 2020
Accepted: Sat 31, Oct 2020
Published: Wed 18, Nov 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Akm Monjurul Hoque. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.CDM.2020.01.06