A descriptive study to assess the knowledge on life style practices among patients with hypertension visiting medical outpatient department in selected tertiary hospital, Kelambakkam, Kanchipuram District, Tamil Nadu, india

A descriptive research design was used to assess the level of knowledge on life style practices among patients with hypertension by using a structured self administered questionnaire. 50 hypertensive patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected by purposive sampling technique. The study was conducted in Medical out Patient department in Chettinad Hospital and research Institute. The collected data were analyzed by using the descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that 52% of the samples were 46 to 55 years , 56% were male most of the hypertensive patients were doing skilled occupation (56%). Among the sample, 94% of hypertensive patients were received the information on lifestyle Practices from health care professionals. Regarding knowledge on life style practices, 46% of hypertensive patients had adequate knowledge and 36% of hypertensive patients had moderate knowledge and 18% of hypertensive patients had inadequate knowledge. The mean is 20.58 % and SD is 1.41. The demographic variables like occupation, income, distribution of hypertension, smoking habit, alcohol consumption were found to be significant at p value 0.05 .The study concluded that Nurses are the front line health care worker need to assess the life style practices and educate the patients about the importance of change of life style practices to prevent complications and improve the health of the patient. Nurses could use multidisciplinary approach to educate and motivate the person to change the lifestyle practices.