Sodium intake, dietary knowledge, and illness perceptions of controlled and uncontrolled rural hypertensive patients

Introduction and Objectives. Nutritional knowledge of the patients is important in dietary adherence. This study aimed to determine the relationship between illness perceptions and nutritional knowledge with the amounts of sodium intake among rural hypertensive patients. Methods. In a cross-sectional study, 671 hypertensive patients were selected in a multistage random sampling from the rural areas of Ardabil city, Iran, in 2013. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of four sections and were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple linear regressions by SPSS-18. Results. The mean of sodium intake in the uncontrolled hypertensive patients was 3599 ± 258 mg/day and significantly greater than controlled group (2654 ± 540 mg/day) (P < 0.001). Knowledge and illness perceptions could predict 47.2% of the variation in sodium intake of uncontrolled group. A significant negative relationship was found between knowledge and illness perceptions of uncontrolled hypertensive patients with dietary sodium intake (r = -0.66, P < 0.001 and r = -0.65, P < 0.001, resp.). Conclusion. Considering the fact that patients' nutritional knowledge and illness perceptions could highly predict their sodium intake, the importance of paying more attention to improve patients' information and perceptions about hypertension is undeniable, especially among the uncontrolled hypertensive patients.