Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: January-March | Volume: 6 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 1-6
Life Style as a Mutable Risk Factor of Hypertension Morbidity among Trained Nurses in Imo State, Nigeria
Chinedu-Eleonu, P.O.1, Abanobi, O.C.2, Ozims, S.J.1, Asodike, M.C.3, Echendu, G.E.4
1Department of Public Health, Imo State University Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
2Department of Public Health, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
3Orthopaedic Unit, Federal Medical Center, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
4ENT Unit, Federal Medical Center, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
Corresponding Author: Chinedu-Eleonu, P.O.
ABSTRACT
Hypertension is a major public health problem which is prevalent all over the world. This study was a descriptive and correlational study carried out to investigate life style as a mutable risk factor of hypertension morbidity among trained nurses in Imo State, Nigeria. A well-structured questionnaire was used to interview the subjects and obtain data for the study. All subjects gave an informed consent to be part of the study. A total of 388 nurses participated in the study, out of which 248 (63.9%) were found to be non-hypertensive while 140 (36.1%) were hypertensive. Some of the lifestyle factors such as not sleeping very well at night, consumption of dairy products such as ice cream, consumption of alcohol and gaining weight due to lifestyle recorded scores with only slight differences for ‘most of the times’ for the nurses having and not having hypertension. Those who consume dairy products ‘most of the times’ were 39.9% for non-hypertensive and 45.0% for hypertensive, and those who consume alcohol ‘most of the times’ comprised of 82.3% of the non-hypertensive and 75.0% for non-hypertensive. In terms of physical exercise, 10.9% non-hypertensive and 16.4% hypertensive indicated that they do not take part in physical exercise ‘most of the times’. Data analysis using SPSS version 23 showed that the relationship between hypertension and lifestyle for the bivariate (unadjusted) discriminant analysis was found to be significant among nurses in Imo state, Nigeria (P<0.0001). Routine health examination and proper training and retraining of nurses were recommended.
Keywords: Hypertension, Life style, Nurses, Exercise, Alcohol consumption.