Investigation of Knowledge about Arterial Hypertension on Community People and Effects of Socio-demographic Factors

Abstract

Introduction: Arterial Hypertension (AH) is one of the most common non-communicable chronic diseases with increasing prevalence. Despite the effectiveness of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions, it still remains a major public health problem. Purpose: To investigate level of knowledge about AH in the community and the factors that affect it. Material and Methods: Study sample was collected through the convenience sampling and consisted of 238 individuals, that visited Primary Health Centers of the 2nd Health Region for various medical reasons from November to December 2019. Collection of data was performed with the Hypertension Knowledge-Level Scale (HK-LS) with a possible range from 0 to 22. Results: The majority of participants were women (58.4%), the largest age group was > 60 years old (37.4%), most were married (65.5%), while in terms of educational level 29% of them had primary school education, 33.2% secondary and 37.8% higher education. Total score distribution demonstrated a relatively high level of knowledge with a value of 17.65±2.52. Employed compared to unemployed - pensioners participants and age group between 50-59 years (p=0.010), were found to have a strong positive relationship on total score of HK-LS. The family history of hypercholesterolemia, AH and diabetes as well as the family history of cardiovascular disease (p<0.05) also had a positive effect on the questionnaire scores, whereas sex, body mass index BMI, marital status and educational level did not affect total score. The model of multiple regression analyses explained 13% of the total variance but none factor affected the total knowledge about hypertension in a significant level. Conclusions: Although the average level of knowledge was found to be relatively high for the total sample, it was clearly demonstrated that younger ages without a family history for AH showed relatively lower level of knowledge. It is likely that this age group may take priority in future planning of educational interventions that increase health awareness and promote a healthy lifestyle.