Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Hypertension among adult Population of Letang Municipality, Morang District, Eastern Nepal

ABSTRACT

Introduction:Hypertension has been identified as one of the major public health and medical challenges with 1/4 adults worldwide estimated to have high blood pressure (BP).Objectives: To assess knowledge, attitude and practices regarding hypertension and to measure the association between socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice regarding hypertension among adult population.Methods:The cross-sectional study was conducted among the 335 adult populationsin Letang Municipality of Nepal. Semi-structured questionnaire wasused for data collection. Chi-square test was applied to measure the association between socio-demographic characteristics with knowledge, attitude and practice regarding hypertension.Results:Majority of the respondents (67.2) have knowledge about the meaning of hypertension and symptoms of hypertension (52.2%). Mostof the respondents think that regular physical activity (83.9%) and reduce salt intake (84.2%) can be prevent hypertension.Almost 73.4% of respondents didn’t know their blood pressure and never checked their BP regularly(66.6%). Almost 12.8% of the study population sufferingfrom hypertension. The adult Population with age group of 41-60years (62.6%) was seen significantly good knowledge in comparison to other age groups. The study population having educational level SLC and above was seen significantly good knowledge,attitude and practice regarding prevention of hypertension in comparison to below SLC and illiterate. The study population belong to above poverty line had significantly good knowledge,attitude and practice regarding prevention of hypertensionin comparison to below poverty line.Conclusions:We conclude that majority of the study population of Letang Municipality had higher knowledge and positive attitude toward prevention of hypertension but the level of practices was poor.