Awareness on Hypertension and its Self-Management Practices among Hypertensive Patients in Pokhara, western Nepal

Hypertension is a condition that affects most of the population throughout the world and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Hypertension-related knowledge and practice such as life style modification, physical activity, nutrition etc. plays an important role in controlling and preventing its long-term complications of hypertension. Therefore the purpose of the study was to find out the awareness of hypertensive patients about their own disease and self care practices. A cross-sectional descriptive study was done in the Pokhara sub metropolitan-13 (10% of total toles). Data was collected with all the respondents who were taking anti-hypertensive medicine of that area, which included 67 respondents. Data was collected from July to August, 2015 with structured interview schedule and data analysis was done by using SPSS version 16. Eighty six percent of the respondents were aware about hypertension. Most of the respondents (64%) belonged to the age group of 60 and above with mean age of 65.21±11.92 years, 60% were male, 71.6% were literate and 38.8% were diagnosed as hypertension since 1 to 5 years. Fifty two percent of the respondents have positive family history of Hypertension. The awareness regarding hypertension seems good but less self care practices among the study population was revealed. Therefore, efforts should be made towards improving the lifestyle modification of hypertensive patients through the initiation of motivational strategies and interventions such as free health camps, mobilization of Community Health Volunteers to encourage the public towards self care practices. Janapriya Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Vol. 6 (December 2017), page: 110-120