Lifestyle modification practice and associated factors among diagnosed hypertensive patients in selected hospitals, South Ethiopia.

Background: Hypertension is one of the leading causes of disability and death in both developed and developing countries that need urgent strategies to implement interventions that control it. Appropriate lifestyle changes often called non-pharmacological approaches that often overlooked are the corner stone of the prevention and control of hypertension. The aim of this study is to assess the practice of lifestyle modifications and associated factors among diagnosed hypertensive patients in Durame and Nigist Elleni Mohamed Memorial General Hospitals in southern Ethiopia.

Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 205 hypertensive patients in Durame and Nigist Elleni Mohamed Memorial General Hospitals in Sothern Nation and Nationality People Representative (SNNPR), from March 1-30 2016. Simple random sampling was used to select study subjects. Data were entered to Epidata 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for analysis. A binary Logistic regression model was fitted to determine independent predictors of lifestyle modifications among hypertensive patients. Adjusted odds ratio at 95%CI was used to declaring the independent effect of each variable on the outcome variable.

Result: The study revealed that only 56(27.3%) of the patients practiced recommended lifestyle modifications. The study found that age (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 0.27, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]:0.13-0.61), educational status (AOR = 2.00,95% CI:1.33-6.75), monthly income (AOR = 2.46, 95% CI:1.32-4.63), years since diagnosis (AOR = 2.48, 95%CI: 1.32-4.69), and co-morbidity (AOR = 0.28,95% CI: 0.13-0.61) were factors significantly associated with lifestyle modification practice ( p  < 0.05).

Conclusion: Generally, lifestyle modification practices among hypertensive patients were low in this study. Therefore, Patients should be educated on the recommended lifestyle modifications that may help patients to control f their blood pressure.