Factors predicting stroke preventive behaviors of hypertensive patients at Na Fai Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital in Chang Wat Chaiyaphum

Abstract

The purposes of this descriptive research were to study stroke preventive behaviors and to find factors predicting stroke preventive behaviors of hypertensive patients at Na Fai Sub-District Health Promoting Hospital in Chang Wat Chaiyaphum. The sample of 258 hypertensive patients was purposively selected. Research tool was a questionnaire composed of 6 parts: demographic data, stroke knowledge, perceived susceptibility and severity of stroke, perceived benefits and barriers of stroke preventive behaviors, cue to action of stroke preventive behaviors, and stroke preventive behaviors. The content validity index of  a questionnaire was 0.86 and the reliability coefficients of each sub-parts, were 0.89, 0.88, 0.76, 0.86 and 0.82 respectively. Descriptive statistics and the multiple regression analysis were used in data analysis. The results were as follows. Almost half of hypertensive patients had preventive behavior at high level (48.8%). Predictive factors of  stroke preventive behaviors included cues to action, perceived benefits and perceived barriers of stroke preventive behaviors. These factors accounted for 23.9% of the variance of stroke preventive behavior at p < .05.