Relationship Between Blood Pressure Control and Self-Care Practices Among Hypertensive Patients Attending Family Medicine Clinic of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

Hypertension is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases worldwide and poses a global health challenge. Self-care practices are essential for blood pressure control and reduction of complications of hypertension such as cardiovascular and renal diseases.

AIM

The study aimed to assess the relationship between blood pressure control and hypertension self-care practices among hypertensive patients attending the Family Medicine clinic of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Lagos, Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY

A descriptive, hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among 407 hypertensive patients attending the outpatient clinic. The participants were recruited using systematic sampling with a sampling interval of 1 in 4. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain relevant data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 23.

RESULTS

A total of 407 participants were enrolled in the study. In this study, 56.8% of the participants had good blood pressure control. On hypertension self-care practices, only 1 % of the participants adhered to low salt diet; 45% adhered to recommended physical activity; 52.8% adhered to weight management; 71.5% had good medication adherence; 93.9% abstained from alcohol and 96.8% of participants abstained from smoking. Overall, none of the domains of hypertension self-care practice was associated with blood pressure control even though there was a trend that those who adhered to the domains of self-care practice had better blood pressure control.

CONCLUSION

Hypertension self-care practice among participants could be better. Participants who had good self-care practice had better blood pressure control however; this was not statistically significant.