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. 2019 Mar 25;19(1):341.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6642-3.

Hypertension in a rural community in South Africa: what they know, what they think they know and what they recommend

Vita W Jongen  1 , Samanta T Lalla-Edward  2 , Alinda G Vos  1   2   3 , Noortje G Godijk  1 , Hugo Tempelman  2   4 , Diederick E Grobbee  1 , Walter Devillé  1   4 , Kerstin Klipstein-Grobusch  5   6
Affiliations

Hypertension in a rural community in South Africa: what they know, what they think they know and what they recommend

Vita W Jongen et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease and has a high prevalence in South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. However, awareness of hypertension has been reported to be low. Health programmes can increase awareness of hypertension and its causes, but hinge on the knowledge and perception of the targeted community. Therefore, this study investigated knowledge on and perceptions about hypertension of community members in a rural area in Limpopo, South Africa with the aim to increase awareness of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the local population.

Methods: Using a mixed methods study approach, 451 participants of the Ndlovu Cohort Study, attending a follow-up visit between August 2017 and January 2018, completed a questionnaire on cardiovascular risk perception. A knowledge score was calculated for all participants. Sixty participants were invited to participate in six focus group discussions, of which 56 participated. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, transcripts coded, and thematic analysis of the data undertaken to obtain an understanding of knowledge and perception of hypertension in the community.

Results: Most members of the community seemed to have intermediate (74.3%) or good (14.0%) knowledge of hypertension based on the knowledge score, and only 11.8% of the population had poor knowledge. The risk factors of hypertension seemed to be well known in the community. Poverty was identified as a major vulnerability in this community limiting choices for healthy lifestyles such as nutritious foods, recreational physical activity and accessing health care timely. Participants proposed community-based activities as an effective way to reach out to community members for prevention and management of hypertension.

Conclusion: This study highlights the need for improved health promotion efforts to increase knowledge of hypertension in rural communities, and to address poverty as a major obstacle to healthy life-style choices.

Keywords: Focus group discussions; Hypertension; Hypertension knowledge; Hypertension perception; Rural community; South Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approvals for the NCS (227/2014) and this sub study (227/2017) were granted by the Medical Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Pretoria.

Prior to enrolment into this study, participants received a written and verbal overview of the content of the study and were asked to sign an informed consent form. FDG participants also signed a consent form to being audio recorded. Participants consented to the inclusion of their demographic data in any NCS (and sub study) aggregated analyses during their enrolment in the NCS.

Consent for publication

All participants consented to being quoted in this publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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