The Relationship Between Nutritional Knowledge and Hypertension Prevention Attitudes Among Individuals With a Family History of Hypertension
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18107134Keywords:
nutrition, hypertension, prevention, Attitude, knowledgeAbstract
Objective: Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the nutritional knowledge levels of individuals with hypertension (HT) in their families and their attitudes towards preventing HT.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out with individuals aged 18 and over who applied to the Family Medicine Outpatient Clinic of a tertiary hospital, and those who had a family member with HT and met the inclusion criteria for the study. Descriptive Information Form, Nutrition Knowledge Scale (NKS) and Attitudes Scale towards Prevention of HT (ASPH) were used to obtain the data.
Results: The mean age of 212 participants included in the study was 37.11 ± 10.45, and 66% (n=140) were women. While the average NKS total score of the participants was 90.05 ± 20.27, the average ASPH total score was 111.49 ± 16.52. 25.5% (n=54) of the participants had low, 15.6% (n=33) had moderate, 23.1% (n=49) had high, and 35.8% (n=76) had very high nutritional knowledge. A significant correlation was found between NKS and ASPH total scores (r = 0.883, p = 0.001). Significant negative correlations were observed between age and body mass index (BMI) and NKS total scores (r = –0.232, p = 0.001; r = –0.260, p = 0.001, respectively). Similarly, age and BMI were also negatively correlated with ASPH total scores (r = –0.231, p = 0.001; r = –0.175, p = 0.011, respectively).
Conclusion: Nutrition knowledge and attitudes towards HT prevention were high among individuals with a family history of HT. Increased nutrition knowledge contributed positively to the development of attitudes towards HT prevention. Both nutrition knowledge and preventive attitudes were positively associated with female gender, younger age, higher socioeconomic status, and lower BMI. These findings highlight the importance of nutrition education and targeted interventions in developing preventive strategies to reduce HT risk.
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