Abstract
Objective: Hypertension (HTN) has long been recognised as a major risk factor for coronary artery diseases, stroke and kidney disease. Despite a myriad of new pharmacological agents, a significant portion of hypertensive patients’ blood pressure remains uncontrolled in the Sudan, an important, often underutilised treatment approach is therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC). This study aimed to assess the attitude, practice and barriers of patients to therapeutic lifestyle changes in the management of hypertension in a third world country in Khartoum locality in 2016. Design and method: The study was cross-sectional descriptive. Data was collected via structured interviews using a questionnaire, full coverage of patients attending Ahmed Gasim and Alshaab hospitals for follow up in a certain time period was carried out, this amounted to a sample of 112, Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilised for data analysis. Results: 112 patients were identified for participation in this study, a slight female preponderance (54.5%), older age with 58% in the 55–70 years’ age group, when assessed for knowledge on lifestyles and habits that affect blood pressure, respondents were most familiar with the fact that salt consumption affects blood pressure, 93.8% answering correctly. After Knowledge scores were calculated, only 31.3% of participants had above average knowledge on blood pressure and TLC. The lifestyle change respondents were least adherent to was regular exercise with 59.8% of participants admitting to not exercising most days. Participants most frequent response to why they aren’t implementing a certain change was that they didn’t feel it mattered enough, the same answer being most frequent for each lifestyle change. Conclusions: In conclusion, this study demonstrated that hypertensive patients are generally knowledgeable on hypertension and the importance of therapeutic lifestyle changes in its management, particularly the importance of minimizing salt intake. The researcher believes that novel approaches are needed to help motivate patients in a third world country such as Sudan diagnosed with hypertension apply their knowledge regarding TLC.
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