Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice towards hypertension among members of the Ethiopian army assigned for peace keeping mission
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Date
2015-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Back ground: Approximately 7.6% million deaths (13-15% of the total) and 92 million
disability-adjusted life years worldwide were attributable to high blood pressure in 2001 and by
2025, the number of hypertensive people is expected to increase by 60% and reach 1.56 billion
people. The reason that Little is known about the knowledge ,attitude and practice towards
prevention and control of hypertension among Army, this study assessed the gaps in knowledge,
attitude and practice towards hypertension and associated factors among the army assigned for
peace keeping mission.
Method: institution based cross sectional study was conducted between March 16 to April 12,
2015 among 420 sample of Ethiopian defense Force members assigned for peace keeping
mission in Birr Shelko training center. Quantitative data were collected on knowledge, attitude
and practice towards hypertension among study participants.
Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize sociodemographic,
characteristics of study participant. Knowledge, attitude and practice towards
hypertension was determined using Bloom's taxonomy for cut of point (60-80). Logistic
regression were used to identify factors associated with outcome variables. The result were
reported by odds ratio (OR) and Statistical significance were declared at p-value less than 0.05.
Result : A total of 420 systematically sampled individuals were studied and found to have
comprehensive knowledge score of 49.8% (±16.2 SD) Two hundred seventy five (65.5%) of
the respondents had low level of knowledge, and cumulative mean percent of attitude score
was 65.1% (±16 SD). Two hundred nine (49.8%) of the respondents had neutral attitude. The
mean percent of practice score were 60.5% (±16.9 SD). Only 93(22.1%) had relatively better
practice towards prevention of hypertension. Practice score of respondents found to have
significant association with educational level, knowledge towards hypertension and attitude
towards preventive practices at p value of 0.05.
Conclusion : Since the level of the knowledge regarding hypertension is low in more than half of
respondents, strengthening health education program is essential. Knowledge about health
feeding and health food, the importance of physical exercise should be given in health education
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Keywords
Hypertension