The evaluation of physical activity for community-dwelling patients with hypertension

The study aimed to evaluate the proportion of Chinese patients with hypertension who meet the Chinese Hypertension Management Guideline recommendations for weekly physical activity and to determine possible associated factors that impact meeting the weekly physical activity recommendation.

Accurate evaluation of physical activity levels for hypertensive patients is important to determine patients' health outcomes and intervention measures. However, most of the evidence on the prevalence of physical activity comes from developed countries; therefore, studies from developing countries are needed.

Across-sectional design was adopted for the study.

The participants were recruited using a convenience sampling method from three healthcare community centres in Guangzhou, southern China. The data were collected using self-report questionnaires. Ordinal logistic regression was used to test factors associated with meeting the weekly physical activity recommendation.

Two hundred and seventy-six (58.6%) hypertensive patients in our study did insufficient physical activity (<150 min/week). One hundred thirty-four (31.3%) patients achieved the weekly physical activity recommendation (≥150 min/week), and 52 (10.1%) met the recommendation for physical activity for additional health benefits (≥300 min/week). In the adjusted ordinal logistic regression analyses, patients over 60 years of age (OR = 1.35, p < .001), who were unemployed (OR = 1.24, p = .036), had lower blood pressure levels (OR = 0.88, p = .019) and no hypertension-related complications (OR = 1.18, p = .021), and regarded self-rated health as good or excellent (OR = 2.37, p = .018), had a higher likelihood of meeting the weekly physical activity recommendation.

Our results showed that the number of Chinese hypertensive patients meeting the weekly physical activity recommendation is suboptimal. Age, employment status, blood pressure, self-rated health and complications related to hypertension were associated with meeting the weekly physical activity recommendation.

The findings implied that hypertensive patients who did insufficient physical activity were subgroups that needed specific instructions in physical activity and motivation to take part in physical activity. Nurses should consider providing counselling and supervision to these patients.