Predictive factors of hypertension preventive behaviors among people with per-hypertension

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the major public health problems that threatens the world and is increasing steadily. It is a chronic disease like a silent killer that kills many people without warning signs or symptoms. This correlational predictive research aim to reveal the hypertension preventive behaviors of people with pre-hypertension and to identify the factors predicting of them. The participants were 257 registered persons with their blood press of 120-129/ 80-89 mmHg when screening tested in their community at the last 6 month ago in Phanat Nikhom District, Chon Buri Province based on multistage sampling method. The research instruments were a demographic data, knowledge, attitude, perceived of resource agency, social support, and hypertension preventive behaviors questionnaires. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the Stepwise multiple regression analysis.

                    The results revealed that the hypertension preventive behaviors of the sample was at a moderate level (M = 2.59, SD = 0.29). The significant predictors of hypertension preventive behaviors were female gender (b = 0.353), social support (b = 0.281), and knowledge (b = 0.189) and could explained the variance of hypertension preventive behaviors among pre-hypertension by 27.6 % (R² = .276, p < 0.01).

                    These findings suggest that nurses and other health care providers should apply these study results to develop activities or programs to promote hypertension preventive behavior among people with pre-hypertension especially male by focusing on social support and knowledge of hypertension.