Abstract:
Background: Hypertension is a serious public health concern disturbing millions of
lives worldwide. Effective lifestyle modifications are the cornerstone for the prevention
and control of hypertension. The level of adherence to lifestyle modifications and its
associated factors are not yet sufficiently determined, and hypertensive patients often
neglect these important lifestyle changes.
Objective: The aim of this study is to assess adherence to lifestyle modifications and
associated factors among adult hypertensive patients attending follow up at selected
Public Hospitals in West Shoa, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2021.
Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study design was employed from August
20 to September 20, 2021. Systematic random sampling technique was employed to
select 320 study participants. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to
collect the data. The collected data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epi-Data
version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. First, descriptive analysis was
carried out to describe the characteristics of study participants and results of the
descriptive statistics were presented as frequencies and percentages. Then, bivariable
logistic regression was done to check the association of each independent variables with
the outcome variable. All variables with p-value <0.25 on bivariable analysis were
included in the multivariable analysis. The strength of the association was stated using
an Adjusted Odds Ratio with its 95% confidence interval and statistical significance at
p-value < 0.05.
Results: The study included 316 respondents with 98.8% response rate in which 170
(53.8%) were males and the mean (standard deviation) age was 55.23(± 12.95) years.
The magnitude of adherence to lifestyle modifications was 30.7% (95%CI: 25.7–
36.1%). Age (AOR = 2.71, 95% CI: 1.19 – 6.19), residence (AOR = 0.19, 95%CI: 0.09
– 0.39), duration of treatment (AOR = 2.17, 95%CI: 1.14– 4.13), attitude (AOR = 2.14,
95%CI: 1.06– 4.30), perceived social support (AOR = 6.23, 95%CI: 3.18– 12.22) and
self-efficacy (AOR = 2.66, 95%CI: 1.25– 5.69) were the independent predictors of
lifestyle modifications adherence.
Conclusion: This study shows that the magnitude of adherence to lifestyle
modifications among hypertensive patients was low. The age, residence, duration of
treatment, attitude toward lifestyle modifications, perceived social support and self efficacy were associated with lifestyle modifications adherence Therefore, more
consistent educational program and specific counseling and motivational approaches
considering these associated factors should be provided to promote effective adherence
to lifestyle modifications
