Influence of Demographic Factors on Perceived Causes and Prevention of Hypertension among Patients in University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin.

Abstract

Abstract 00818019 NBGRE The study was conducted to determine the influence of demographic factors of hypertensive patients towards the perceived causes and prevention of hypertension in University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Norin. The population comprised of hypertensive clients attending the outpatient clinic for follow-up. Purposive random sampling technique was used to select three hundred (300) subjects for the study. Questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection and was drawn in line with the likert rating scale of strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree forinat. This was personally administered with the help of four staff who served as Research Assistants. The chi square inferential statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that age, gender and occupation had influence on the patients towards the causes and prevention of hypertension. Based on the findings, the authors recommend that unhealthy lifestyle among the youths especially the adolescents and young adults should be discouraged through the Ministry of Health, Youths and Social Welfare. Efforts should be made to stop the rising tide of the disease in the country. Also the three tiers, of health sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary) should be adequately and actively involved in the fight against the disease so as to reduce the prevalence globally.