Ab. No. 138 Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Physical Activity in Subjects With Hypertension

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension a commonly prevalent non-communicable disease with a national incidence of more than 2.5 million can be managed with proper medical management, sufficient physical activity (PA) and lifestyle changes. Less knowledge about Physical activity as a management for hypertension among hypertensive subjects warrants this study. Aim of the study is to identify and analyze the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Physical activity in hypertensive subjects. Methods: 256 consented hypertensive subjects of both Genders, age 18 to 70, with a clinical history of > 10 months were included; Patients with recent cardiac events, hospitalization in the past 2 weeks, severe comorbidities, patients contraindicated to physical activity and pregnant women were excluded. Demographic and basic clinical data were obtained. A self-developed experts validated survey questionnaire with 22 questions has been filled by the participants Based on the responses participant’s knowledge, attitude and practice of Physical Activity were identified. Results: In the study population, 62.1% had low PA, 36.7% had Moderate PA and only 1.2% had high PA levels.37.1% of population had Positive attitude about physical activity and 62.9% had negative attitude.Only 39.5% of population were practicing a structured physical activity. Using the Pearson’s correlation, the correlation between Physical activity levels and KAP individually were analysed and found to have statistically significant positive correlation between physical activity (IPAQ) and Practice (p value.0005) and between Knowledge and Physical activity (p value.0001). Conclusion: Subjects with hypertension have poor knowledge and have a negative attitude towards PA. With this KAP survey results, physiotherapists should start spreading awareness about importance of PA and the lurking danger of Physical inactivity for hypertensive subjects in general population. Proper patient education needs to be provided to emphasize the practice of tailor-made structured PA for hypertensive subjects and future multicentric studies are warranted.