Awareness about hypertension and its modifiable risk factors among adult population in a rural area of Ranchi district of Jharkhand, India

Chandramani Kumar; Vidya Sagar; Mithilesh Kumar; Kumari Asha Kiran

doi:10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20161359

Authors

Chandramani Kumar Department and Community and Family Medicine, AIIMS, Patna, Bihar
Vidya Sagar Department of PSM, RIMS Ranchi, Jharkhand
Mithilesh Kumar Department of PSM, RIMS Ranchi, Jharkhand
Kumari Asha Kiran Department of PSM, RIMS Ranchi, Jharkhand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20161359

Keywords:

Hypertension, Awareness, Risk factors, Rural area, Jharkhand

Abstract

Background: Hypertension often goes unnoticed until a complication occurs. Awareness about the disease is an important factor which determines health seeking behavior of the people. There is relative paucity of information on awareness level of people on hypertension. This study was done with the aim to determine awareness on hypertension among people from a rural area of Jharkhand, India.

Methods:A cross sectional study was done in the rural health training centre area of RIMS, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. 500 study subjects aged 20 years and above were included in study after sample size determination by n-master 2.0 software. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Awareness level categorized into no awareness, low awareness, average awareness, good awareness on the basis of their response to question on awareness about hypertension and its modifiable risk factors.

Results: Out of 500 study subjects, 365 (73.0%) had heard of word ‘hypertension’. Dizziness (66.1%), anger and anxiety (50.8%) were the most common symptoms known to subjects who had heard hypertension. Of all 500 subjects, 135 (27.0%) had no awareness, 249 (49.8%) had poor awareness, 99 (19.8%) had average awareness and only 17 (3.4%) had good awareness about hypertension. Age (p-value≤0.001), sex (p-value≤0.001), ethnicity (p-value=0.002) and educational status (p-value≤0.001) of the study subjects found to be significantly associated with awareness about hypertension.

Conclusions:More than three-fourth study subjects had heard about hypertension. Only less than one fourth of the study subjects had average to good awareness about hypertension. Age, sex, ethnicity and educational status were significantly associated with awareness on hypertension.

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