SELF-CARE KNOWLEDGE AND RELATED FACTORSAMONG OLDER OUT-PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSIONIN NAM DINH GENERAL HOSPITAL IN 2016

Abstract

Objective: To describe the knowledge of self-care of elderly outpatients with hypertension in Nam Dinh general hospital and explore the relationship of self-care with age, gender and the duration of disease. Method: The descriptive design was conducted among410 elderly outpatients with hypertension. The participants were randomized selected and interviewed with questions. Results: the knowledge of elderly hypertensive patients was not adequate with mean score of 7.49 ± 0.88 /10 points. Patients had a lack of knowledge in some aspects: 52.9% of patients were not fully aware of numbers for high blood pressure; 19.5% of patients took the medicine incorrectly; 16.8% of patients had no medication adherence; 60% of patients did not have proper knowledge about types of meat benifited for hypertensive patients and60% of patients did not know hypertension can cause kidney failure, visual disorders. The study also found that age and sex had a negative correlation with the patients’ self-care knowledge with r of -0.179 and -0.259, respectively. Conclusion: the self-care knowledge of the elderly outpatients with hypertension within this study was limited.