Lifestyle modification practices and associated factors among hypertensive patients at Gambella Hospital Southwest Ethiopia; 2019

Abstract Background Hypertension is one of the leading causes of death in developed and developing countries that need urgent strategies to implement interventions. Appropriate lifestyle modification practices are the corner stone of the prevention and control. Objective To assess lifestyle modification practices and associated factors among hypertensive patients. Methods A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among hypertensive patients from 1 April to 30 April 2019. Simple random sampling was used to select the study subjects. Data were entered to EpiData 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 25.0, for analysis. A binary logistic regression analysis was performed to determine predictors of lifestyle modifications among hypertensive patients. Results The findings of this study revealed that the level of lifestyle modification practice was 79 (39.5%). This finding is very low, and it has a significant effect on the management of hypertensive disorders and hypertension-related acute and chronic complications. Ethnicity, family history of hypertension, and knowledge about hypertension were identified as predictors of lifestyle modification practice. Conclusions In this study, lifestyle modification practice is low (about 40%), but scientifically, almost all hypertensive patients on follow-up should practice lifestyle modification modalities.