Knowledge, attitude and practice of lifestyle modification recommended for hypertension management and the associated factors among adult hypertensive patients in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia.

Introduction: Hypertension is an overwhelming global challenge. Appropriate lifestyle modifications are the cornerstone for the prevention and control of hypertension. In this regard, lack of knowledge and poor attitude toward lifestyle modification have been a major setback.

Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of lifestyle modification recommended for hypertension management and the associated factors among adult hypertensive patients in Harar, Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods: Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 274 hypertensive patients in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, from 1 March to 30 May 2019. The pre-tested structured questionnaire was used, and the data were collected through an interview. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. A multivariate logistic regression model was fitted to determine independent predictors of knowledge and practice of lifestyle modifications among hypertensive patients. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at 95% confidence interval (CI) was used for predicting the independent effect of each variable on the outcome variables.

Results: From the total participants, 200 (73.0%) of participants had good knowledge, 182 (66.4%) had favorable attitude and 136 (49.6%) had good practice on lifestyle modification recommended for hypertension management. Regarding factors associated with lifestyle modification, being in age range of 46-64 years (AOR: 4.08, 95% CI: 1.14-14.56); having formal education (AOR: 3.93, 95% CI: 1.27-12.23); being government employee (AOR: 8.06, 95% CI: 1.40-46.32) and being housewives (AOR: 5.10, 95% CI: 1.26-20.79) were factors significantly associated with good knowledge of lifestyle modification, However, favorable attitude was found to be the only factor associated with good practice of lifestyle modification (AOR: 9.20, 95% CI: 2.60-32.24).

Conclusion: In the current study, knowledge and attitude toward lifestyle modification recommended for hypertension management was fairly good but practice level was poor. Concerted strategies are required to increase the knowledge, attitude and practice of the lifestyle modification measures in this population group.