A STUDY TO ASSESS THE HEALTH PRACTICES AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF ELDERLY HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS AT A SELECTED COMMUNITY

 

A STUDY TO ASSESS

THE HEALTH PRACTICES

AND QUALITY OF LIFE

OF ELDERLY HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS AT A

SELECTED COMMUNITY, GULBARGA

INTRODUCTION

            Hypertension is the term used to describe high blood pressure. Blood pressure is a measurement of the force against the walls of your arteries as the heart pumps blood through the body. Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a leading cause of chronic kidney failure. Moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure leads to shortened life expectancy. Dietary and lifestyle changes can improve blood pressure control and decrease the risk of associated health complications, although drug treatment may prove necessary in patients for whom lifestyle changes prove ineffective or insufficient

NEED FOR THE STUDY

v THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION attributes hypertension, or high blood pressure, as the leading cause of cardiovascular mortality.

v The World Hypertension League (WHL), an umbrella organization of 85 national hypertension societies and leagues, recognized that more than 50% of the hypertensive population worldwide is unaware of their condition.

v To address this problem, the WHL initiated a global awareness campaign on hypertension in 2005 and dedicated May 17 of each year as World Hypertension Day (WHD).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

 

“A Study to

Assess the Health Practices and Quality

of Life of Elderly Hypertensive Patients

at a Selected Community,

Gulbarga”

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

l To assess the health practices of patients with hypertension by using checklist.

 

l To assess the Quality Of Life (QOL) of patients with hypertension by using an interview schedule.

 

l To find out the relationship between health practices and Quality Of Life (QOL) of the patients with hypertension.

 

l To determine the association between health practices and Quality Of Life (QOL) of the patient with selected demographic variables

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

l Assessment: In the present study assessment refers to the process of documenting the health practices and quality of life of patients with hypertension in measurable terms.

l Health Practices – Health practices refers to practices related to adherence to the type of treatment and follow-up.

l Quality Of Life - In the present study it refers to Quality of life refers to the degree of wellness, comfort or enjoyment felt by a patient having hypertension measured in various dimensions of physical, socio, emotional and intellectual domains.

l Elderly- In this present study, it refers to, 60 years and above age group of people is called as elderly.

l Patient with hypertension- Patient with hypertension refers to patients of both gender diagnosed as having hypertension and taking treatment for more than 6 months and who attend the outpatient department of a selected hospital for follow up in a selected community.

DELIMITATIONS

This study is limited to:

 

l The patients with hypertension  above 60 years.

 

l Those who are willing to participate.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

l A conceptual framework is a theoretical approach to the study of problems that are scientifically based and emphasizes the selection, arrangement and classification of its concepts. A conceptual framework states functional relationship between events and is not limited to statistical relationships.20

 

l The present study aims at assessing the health practices and quality of life of the patients with hypertension present in the selected primary health centre.

 

l In this study the focus is on assess the health practices and quality of life of the patients with hypertension in a selected community at Gulbarga.

 

METHODOLOGY

l Research Approach

–Research approach indicates the procedure for conducting the study.20 Non experimental descriptive survey approach is used in this study.

 

l Research Design

–Research design is an investigators overall plan for obtaining answer to the research questions or for testing the research hypothesis.

–Research design selected for the study was descriptive survey.

–The selection of particular design was based on the purpose and objective of the study. The design will help to assess the health practices of patients with hypertension and their quality of life.

RESULTS

l This chapter deals with the analysis and interpretation of data collected to assess the health practices and quality of life of patients with hypertension attending selected community, Gulbarga. Analysis of data is a process by which qualitative information is reduced, summarized, organized, evaluated, interpreted and communicated in a meaningful way.33

 

l Data collected from 100 patients with epilepsy, analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Percentage distribution of patients with hypertension according to their age in years

Percentage distribution of patients with hypertension according to their Gender

Percentage distribution of patients with hypertension according to their educational status

Percentage distribution of source of knowledge regarding hypertension

Percentage distribution of patients with hypertension according to their marital status

Percentage distribution of patients with epilepsy according to their monthly income

Percentage distribution of patients according of patients with hypertension according to their habits

Description of health practices of patients with hypertension

l This section deals with the description and analysis of the health practices of patient with hypertension.

l In order to categorize the health practices of the patient with hypertension a three point scale was used , based on this score, they were categorized as poor for percentage score <33% average between 33%-66% and good for the score above 66 %.

Table :- percentage distribution of health practices of patients with epilepsy

Table : - Frequency distribution and percentage of quality of life of patients with hypertension.

Table :- Area-wise Mean, SD, and Mean percentage of quality of life score of patient with hypertension.

Bar diagram showing the area wise distribution of quality of life score of patient with hypertension.

CONCLUSION

     The assessment of health practices and quality of life of the patient with hypertension revealed the following findings:

 

l Analysis of the level of health practices revealed that majority of the patients had average level of health practices.

l The findings about the level of quality of life of patients showed that none of them enjoyed good quality of life and majority of them had average quality of life.

l There was significant relationship between the quality of life of patients and their health practices.

l There was no significant association between the health practices and demographic variables of patient with hypertension when compared with age, gender, education status, marital status, monthly income, and habits except for source of information.

l There was no significant association between the quality of life and demographic variables of patient with epilepsy when compared with age, gender, education status, monthly income, and habits except for source of information and marital status.

SUMMARY

            This chapter summarizes the study. Hypertension affects the physical, socioeconomic, emotional, and intellectual aspects of an individual. Measurement of quality of life as indicator of patient care outcome has become increasingly important for hypertensive patient, where the goal of treatment is not only to improve prognosis, but also to improve functioning of the individual in every aspect of his life. Good health practices can bring the expected quality of life to the lives of patients with hypertension. Improvement in quality of life is considered to be important as a primary outcome and in the determination of therapeutic benefit. Hence the aim of the study was to assess the health practices and quality of life of patients with hypertension and recommend for follow up interventional studies.