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Hypertension self- management and associated factors among patients attending clinics in referral hospitals in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania
Abstract
Background: Hypertension is a growing risk for cardiovascular disease affecting more than 1.13 billion people worldwide. Rapid urbanization and associated lifestyle changes which are currently happening in low- middle-income countries are known to drive the growing prevalence of HT. With lifestyle factors playing a major role in its pathogenesis, lifestyle interventions are crucial for the management of the disease. To a large extent, lifestyle interventions are done by individual patients hence self-management practices are a key component. This study aims to elucidate and describe self-management practices for hypertension among adults attending a referral hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study, involving 330 hypertensive patients was done in three regional referral hospitals in Dar es Salaam All eligible patients completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire consisting of a tool for the assessment of self-management practice, a modified and validated "hypertension evaluation of lifestyle and management scale" in Swahili and additional patient and healthcare-related data. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were then conducted using SPSS version 20.
Result: The overall prevalence of good self-management practice was found to be 19.7%. Education level, having a family member that suffered hypertensive complications, and self-management knowledge level was significantly associated with good self-management practices [p < 0.05]. The independent predictor for good practice was having good knowledge [OR = 0.209, 95% CI =0.060-0.727].
Conclusion: Despite being one of the key components in Hypertension management, self-management is inadequately practised among the studied patients. Awareness, knowledge and experience seem to influence self-management practices hence approaches to improve them should be incorporated into HT management regimes.
