Factors Influencing Self-Care Behaviors in Hypertension Patients With Complications

While hypertension with accompanying complications remains a life-threatening illness, a critical program in its management and prevention is implementing self-care behaviors (SCBs). This study examined the factors associated with SCB that are dominant in hypertension patients with complications.

This quantitative study was conducted using the regression analytic method and a cross-sectional approach. The non-probability sampling technique was used, and the response rate was 96.2%. Data were collected using a modified hypertension self-care profile (HBP-SCP) questionnaire, hypertension knowledge questionnaire, family support questionnaire, and the brief-illness perception questionnaire (B-IPQ).

The mean total SCB score was high at 55.9% with a mean of 191.01, SD = 5.16; 77.5% of the respondents had no disease history, 80.4% had good knowledge, 58.8% had strong family support, and 50% had a good perception of the disease. Factors that were significantly related to SCB were family support (p = 0.00, r = 0.75) and illness perception (p = 0.00, r = 0.77), while disease history (r = 0.47) and knowledge were not significantly related (r = 0.13). Moreover, the analysis of multiple linear regression with the backward method showed that the most dominant factor influencing SCB was illness perception (p = 0.00, = 0.47, B = 0.495, R2 = 0.650). The effect of illness perception on SCB (65%) meant that each 0.50 perception score increased the SCB score by one.

It is recommended that health workers increase patient perception using innovative interventions to improve the SCB of hypertension patients with complications.