Abstract:
Background: Elevated blood pressure levels serve as a risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Despite the deadly nature of the disease, most people lack awareness about the causes, effects and ways to prevent it. Additionally, most people engage in lifestyles that put them at risk of getting the disease or making their condition difficult to control in cases where they are already diagnosed.
Methods: This study used primary data within the framework of a quantitative cross-sectional design to provide answers to the research questions. The primary data was collated using a sample of 355 respondents from the total population of 3767 who were selected according to the stratified random sampling technique. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests, and multiple regression analysis. The analysis was carried out using Stata version 18.
Results: The findings showed that majority of the respondents (69.9%) are not knowledgeable about hypertension. Also, majority of the respondents (82.8%) exhibit negative attitude towards hypertension. The results further indicate that knowledge of hypertension is higher among respondents who were at least 20 years or educated with senior secondary or tertiary level education. Also, respondents who check their blood pressure level daily or have been diagnosed with hypertension were found to be knowledgeable about hypertension. Additionally, the study results suggest that men had negative attitude towards hypertension. Respondents who were between the ages of 20-29 years and 30-39 years were found to have positive attitude towards
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hypertension. The results also pointed to a positive attitude toward hypertension among respondents with tertiary level education.
Conclusion: The respondents had inadequate knowledge of hypertension. Also, attitude towards hypertension among the respondents was very poor. The study thus suggest that health agencies should create awareness about hypertension, highlighting the prevention, causes, risk factors and effective management of the disease. Also, public health education programmes should be targeted at workers of Golden exotic especially men and the less educated in society who are more likely to exhibit negative attitude towards the disease.
