Patients' Knowledge, Attitude and Compliance with Lifestyle Activities that can Potentially Interfere with the Outcome of Anti-hypertensive Medications

Non-drug therapy as component of management often compliments drug therapy in order to achieve positive clinical outcomes. This patient-focussed research studied 225 hypertensive patients comprising 95 males and 130 females to assess the knowledge, attitude and education received and compliance with lifestyle modification. A cross-sectional descriptive study using questionnaire was used to investigate herbal intake, patients' attitude and lifestyle activities like exercise, salt regulation, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, fat/cholesterol regulation, diets and sugar intake. The mean ages are 52.61 +/- 10.78 years for male and 47.12 +/- 11.37 years for female. Patients' knowledge of normal BP was related to educational levels (odds values for good to poor knowledge: 0.07, 0.43, 3.17 and 3.95 respectively for uneducated, primary, secondary and tertiary education) and to the duration of diagnosis (odds values: 0.56, 0.87, 1.24, 1.57, 0.71 and 1.60 respectively for <1 year, 1-2 years, 2-5 years, 5-10 years, 10-20 years and >20 years). About 52% (n=118) are aware that uncontrolled BP causes stroke but similar awareness of damages to eye, kidney and heart were low (being 34.4%, 34.7% and 42.2% respectively). Out of 28(12.4%) smokers, 9.8% (n=22) quitted when advised against the habit leaving 2.7% (n=6) as active smokers. Only 29.3% are aware of danger of excessive alcohol intake while 63.1% (n=142) never checked their lipid profiles. 30.7% (n=69) of patients are aware of risks of high cholesterol levels but two-third of patients (66.7%; n=150) never received advice to monitor such parameter. Majority (71.1%; n=160) have poor knowledge of effect of high sugar levels while only 37.3% (n=84) have been advised on regular check-up for this parameter. Most patients (60.9%, n=137) are aware of benefits of physical activity and received advice (57.8%, n=130) leading to 63% (n=136) of patient who complied to advise and 5.366 Mantel-Haenszel common odds estimate ratio for educated and uneducated relating regular exercisers and non-exercisers. About 82% (n=184) avoided excessive salt intake giving rise to 99.5% of patients who complied. However, 43 (19.1%) patients combined herbal preparation with their orthodox medicines. Patients seemed to have good knowledge of complication of uncontrolled BP to the brain, regulate salt intake and are compliant with advice on physical activities but lacked knowledge of danger of high cholesterol level. Patient-focused pharmaceutical care services with emphasis on patients' education are required to optimize gains from drug therapy.