Survey of Blood Pressure Status and Knowledge of Risk Factors of Hypertension Amongst Non-Medical Workers of a Nigerian Tertiary Medical Institution

Abstract

Health authorities including the World Health Organization (WHO) have recommended that hypertension health education and promotion in the community will increase awareness and thus aid knowledge, early detection and prevention. The objectives of the study were two fold: (a) to assess the knowledge of hypertension risk factors, amongst non medical health workers (b) to assess their awareness of their blood pressure status.

Method: Questionnaire survey of 297 non-medical staff of a tertiary health facility, in Lagos, Nigeria, using community level WHO-selected knowledge base for hypertension.

Results: Respondents were 70% males, and a quarter had tertiary education. A majority (>70%) knew of the deleterious effect of smoking (72%), excessive salt ingestion (74%), but not of excessive dietary fat ingestion (16%) on hypertension.
Univariate analysis showed that age was related to knowledge of smoking and that “hypertension” was synonymous to “high blood pressure” (p<0.05), whilst education was related to knowledge of excessive fat ingestion with hypertension (p<0.05). Self perceived obesity and professional diagnosis of obesity were 7%, and 8% respectively. Awareness data showed that in 5% of respondents-BP was never measured; 26% had measurements but were unaware of level or status; normal BP status in 49%, and hypertension status in 20%. About 10% of recalled BP values were in hypertensive range.
Conclusion: Knowledge was satisfactory on hypertension risk factors, except excessive fat ingestion; but more than a third of respondents were unaware of their BP status.


Keywords: Hypertension, awareness, non-medical hospital workers, risk factors, blood pressure status.

NQJHM Vol. 15 (3) 2005: pp. 146-149