ASSEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF LIFE STYLE MODIFICATION AGAINST RISK FACTOR FOR HYPERTENSION AMONG TEACHERS AT PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ADDIS ABEBA, ETHIOPIA.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Hypertension remains as one of the most important public health challenges worldwide because of the associated morbidity, mortality, and the cost to the society. It is one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality resulting from target organ damage to blood vessels in the heart, brain, kidney, and eyes. In spite of emerging empirical evidence of the efficacy of lifestyle modification in blood pressure control, little is known about the practice of lifestyle modification and associated factors among both hypertensive and non-hypertensive individuals in Ethiopia Objectives: The main aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice about life style modification against risk factors for hypertension among public secondary school’s teachers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods and materials: An institutional based cross-sectional study was done in randomly selected four secondary schools which are found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The study populations were teachers from Minellik II, Medihaniyalem, Addis Ketema and Yekatit 12 secondary schools. 192 teachers were the sample size and a systematic random sampling procedure was used to choose the study participants. Data for study was collected using self administrated structured questionnaires. Two final year medical students were recruited as data collectors and were trained. They checked the completeness, consistency and appropriateness of the collected data every day and was corrected according to the identified problems. Ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, department of public health. Informed verbal consent was taken from all participants in order to protect their rights of privacy and confidentiality. Confidentiality was ensured for the participants by not recording their name. Data was cleaned and explored for outliers, missed values and any inconsistencies and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results: there were 192 participants and all questionnaires were completed. The majority of the study participants 56(29.2 %) were in the age group ranged from 35-44, while 126 (65.6%) were males and 66 (34.4%) were females. Of the participants almost every one of them 99.5% had heard about hypertension and most of them 93.8% knew that hypertension is a disease. Over all the study shows that 70.3% of the respondents had adequate knowledge about life style modifications factors against hypertension. About 95.4% of the participants thought that regular checking of their blood pressure level are important while 77.1% thought that it is important to keep touch with the health professionals. The study showed that 55.2% of the respondents has positive attitude towards lifestyle modification measures taken against hypertension. Overall this study showed that 39.6% of the respondents have good practice. The study showed that males were 3times more knowledgeable than the females. There was also significant association between educational level and the knowledge score. Conclusion: This study revealed lifestyle modification practice is low among the teachers. Lifestyle modification through changes in eating patterns, reducing alcohol intake, weight management, smoking cessation and regular physical activity were not practicing as in expected. Key words: Hypertension, life style modification, public secondary school Teachers