Knowledge and attitude towards hypertension among female community health volunteers of Bharatpur Metropolitan: a cross-sectional study in Nepal

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is one of the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and becoming a serious public health problem globally. The rising burden of hypertension in Nepal requires a community-based intervention that can be provided through female community healthcare volunteers (FCHVs). Our study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes towards the prevention of hypertension among FCHVs of Bharatpur Metropolitan (BM). Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted and face-to-face interview was employed to recruit all the participants (n=207). Frequencies and percentages were used to describe the characteristics of the participants. An Independent t-test was used to determine the association between knowledge and attitude of hypertension with participants’ socio-demographical characteristics. All the tests were carried out at the statistically significant of p value <0.05. Results: The majority of participants (40.6%) belonged to the age group 40 to 49 years. Education (7.7±1.5, p=0.001), religion (7.5±1.7, p=0.017,) and family history of hypertension (7.8±1.7, p=0.018) were statistically significant with the knowledge of hypertension. Similarly, education (9.6±0.9, p=0.000), and self-history of hypertension (9.5±0.7, p=0.014) of participants were statistically significant with the attitude of hypertension. Conclusions: Despite having satisfactory knowledge and attitude on hypertension, some of the participants were unable to identify a systolic and diastolic range of blood pressure for hypertension, risk factors, and complications of hypertension. This study highlighted strengthening targeted orientation programs toward hypertension for the FCHVs to improve their knowledge and beliefs about hypertension.