Physical activity and associated factors among hypertensive patients aged 18-45 years attending care at Kiruddu hospital. A hospital based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is widely acknowledged as the most common cardiovascular affecting over 31.1% of the adults aged 20 years and older across the globe, and 26.4% of adults aged 18-64 years in Uganda. Physical inactivity is one of the most important modifiable risk factors in the development of hypertension that also accounts for approximately 3.2 million deaths annually across the globe. However, much PA has been well demonstrated as an effective non-pharmacological intervention to reduce high blood pressure, motivating the general public to engage in it is challenging and even harder among the hypertensive. Data regarding patients’ PA and associated factors is essential as a basis in developing interventions to increase their activity levels to beneficial levels. Such data, however, is scanty in Uganda and thus the current study was an attempt to address the data gap. The main objective of this study was to establish the physical activity level and associated factors among hypertensive patients aged 18-45 years attending care at Kiruddu hospital. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on a sample of 67 hypertensive patients (aged 18-45 years) attending care at the hypertensive outpatient clinic of Kiruddu hospital. Participants’ data were obtained using a well-designed questionnaire and PA was assessed using the WHO GPAQ version 2. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS 22. A pvalue of <0.05 was used as a criterion for statistical significance at 95% level of confidence. Results: Majority (83.6%) of the participants met the current recommended levels of physical activity and 52.2% had a normal BMI whereas 46.3% were overweight and obese. The mean waist circumference of the respondents was 82.38±12.52 cm. The most reported barrier was “feeling lazy to do exercise” (70.1%) while the most reported motivator to engage in PA was “to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight” (85.1%). Conclusions: Collectively, the findings of this study highlight high physical activity levels among hypertensive patients especially 18-25 years. However, high levels of barriers were identified that warrant the need to establish approaches and interventions so as to reduce them and also raise the low levels of motivators so as to promote and maintain regular physical activity.