Lifestyle practices among hypertensive patients at a selected district hospital in Rwanda

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is a concern, affecting all categories of people in all countries together with other non-communicable diseases. Adherence to lifestyle practices this condition can be managed and controlled. Aim: To assess the lifestyle practices among hypertensive patients in management of hypertension Research question: What are the lifestyle practices that hypertensive patients adopt in management of hypertension? Significance of the study: Findings of the study on lifestyle practices among hypertensive patients will show how much lifestyle practices are needed in clinical, education and in research areas. Methodology: Descriptive quantitative study was used with cross-sectional design. The study was conducted among hypertensive patients at Masaka district hospital to assess the lifestyle practices in management of hypertension. Self-administered questionnaire was used as a research instrument. A convenient sampling strategy was used to select respondent. SPSS version 21 was used to analyze the data. The relationship between lifestyle practices were analyzed by using chisquare test of independence. Results: The findings from this study revealed that some hypertensive patients do not adhere to lifestyle practices and mentioned different barriers. Adherence varied with the components of self-care management, with the worst poor adherence on self-monitoring of blood pressure at home at 94% of the respondents. Similarly, 78% of the respondents do not manage stress, 56% do not read food labels at the grocer‟s shop while 55% do not exercise in order to manage weight. Finally, 42% of the respondents keep drinking alcohol inappropriately. Regarding the barriers to self-management of HTN, they vary and the most reported barrier was financial constraints where 85.9% of the respondents reported lack of materials for self-monitoring of blood pressure while 60.8% reported physical condition as a barrier to physical exercise. Concerning the relationship, some barriers had a relationship with the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents while others were not related. Conclusion: Adherence to lifestyle practices among hypertensive patients was not adequate and it should be attained at %. Therefore, there is a need to emphasize on education about lifestyle practices among hypertensive patients.