A descriptive study to assess knowledge related to hypertension and its impact upon exercises and sleep pattern among adults from communities of Uttarakhand.

INTRODUCTION: Hypertension nowadays is a major community health problem. It is high prevalence, which becomes an important area of research which is also a major possibility for circulatory diseases and other complications. It is a silent killer, which does not show any warning sign until a severe medicinal crisis occurs. The study aims to assess the knowledge regarding hypertension and its effect on the amount of exercise and sleep among adults at risk of hypertension from both rural and urban communities of Uttarakhand.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: A descriptive cross-sectional research design with the total sample size was calculated as 542 adults at risk of hypertension. A purposive sampling method was used for sample selection in this study. A semi-structured questionnaire regarding knowledge related to hypertension and amount of exercise and sleep patterns was administered as tools for data collection. Analysis was done by using SPSS 23.0 version software, descriptive statistics with the use of frequency %, inferential statistics with Chi-square test, and P value ≤ 0.05 considered as significant.

RESULTS: Majority (58%) of them were male, living with a nuclear family with very poor educational status. It showed that whenever they have free time, only then they were performing simple work without having any experience with regular exercise and yoga. Less than half of them (45%) were having good knowledge about increased blood pressure is a disease, medical management, and how to prevent it. Knowledge regarding hypertension showed significant association with less amount of exercise (use of a motored vehicle to going to job/work) (p value = 0.0001*) and satisfactory pattern of sleep among adults at risk of hypertension (p value = 0.001*).

CONCLUSION: In this study, a lack of education and very poor knowledge regarding the management of hypertension found to be associated with less amount of exercise but satisfactory sleep among adults at risk of hypertension.