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Subject Area

Community Medicine and Public health

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Background Hypertension (HTN) and its complications are an important public health problem all over the world. It is identified as the third ranked factor for disability-adjusted life years, as nearly one-quarter of the adult population worldwide lives with HTN. Most of hypertensive patients are unaware that they had HTN, whereas those who are aware have uncontrolled blood pressure. HTN also leads to substantial health care costs, accounting for almost half of all direct cardiovascular disease health care spending. Health-promoting behaviors, identified as activities motivated by a desire to protect or promote health and well-being, are essential for prevention and control of HTN and its complication. Objectives This study aimed at estimating the rates of positive health-promotion behaviors and their associated factors among hypertensive patients. Patients and methods A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted on 250 hypertensive patients who visited an outpatient clinic throughout 5 months using structured interview. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. The health-promoting behavior was measured by the Arabic version of Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. The questionnaire includes four subscales with 30 items in total. A score for overall health-promoting lifestyle behaviors was obtained by calculating a mean of the individual's responses to all 30 items. Results The percentages of positive behaviors reported were 25.2, 32.4, 16.4, 45.6, and 34.8% for lifestyle, health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, and stress management. The independent predictors for positive lifestyle health-promotion behaviors were normal weight, less than 5 years duration of HTN, monitoring of blood pressure, and secondary education and above, with 95% confidence interval and adjusted odds ratio of 3.5 (1.9–6.5) and 3.0, 14.3 (6.2–33.2) and 6.3, 8.5 (4.1–17.3) and 3.1, and 27.5 (11.2–67.9) and 13.0, respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of positive health-promoting behavior is low among hypertensive patients. Health education and counseling are necessary for all hypertensive patients as part of their treatment plans, and special attention should be paid for those at high risk of low health-promoting behavior.

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