Knowledge, Awareness and Risk Factors for Hypertension among Non-Medical Studentsin Chennai-A Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Hypertension also known as high blood pressure or arterial hypertension is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. Hypertension is one among the silent killer diseases worldwide and is a major risk factor for many other diseases like cardiovascular diseases, stroke, renal diseases, and many other. Increasing the knowledge, awareness, and control of risk factors associated with hypertension will reduce the morbidity and mortality. Therefore the aim of this study is to assess the level of Knowledge, Awareness and Risk factors for Hypertension among Non-Medical Adults in chennai.

Materials and Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among non-medical students of Saveetha University, Chennai. A two stage simple random sampling was performed. In the first stage, three colleges (Saveetha school of law, saveetha school of management, saveetha engineering) were selected.Following simple random sampling 150 non-medical students were selected. A Self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all the selected participants and descriptive data in terms of frequency and percentage were analyzed using SPSS software (Version 17.0).

Results: In the present study, only 34% of the participants were aware that males are prone for hypertension and only 4%were aware that diabetes is the major risk factor for hypertension. 41% of people have knowledge about hypertension and 59% of people do not have knowledge on hypertension.

Conclusion: To conclude, very few participants have sufficient knowledge and awareness about the etiology and risk factor associated with hypertension. Hence, considerable education is needed to increase awareness in modern concepts of particularly about risk factors and warning signs.