Knowledge of hypertension blood pressure, attitudes and lifestyle among the employees of a department ministerial in Lomé, Togo

Abstract

Arterial hypertension is a great public health problem
worldwide but it is often badly known by the populations.
Aim: the purpose of present study was to evaluate the
knowledge, attitudes and practices on the arterial
hypertension among employees of a governmental
institution in Lomé.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study among 207
employees of the ministry of agriculture and its
departments, carried out from June 6 to July 5, 2010.
Results: the prevalence of arterial hypertension was
54.1%. The average age was of 42.7 ± 9.8 years. No
employee had a good level of knowledge, 12.6% had a
mean level of knowledge and 87.4% had a bad level of
knowledge. The main sources of information were the
hypertensive patients (39.1%), the close relations (30.9%)
and media (25.6%); 47.8% of the workers were unaware of
their tensional level. 28% of the subjects had a fatty food,
20.3% had salted food and 6.8% were smokers. Among the
hypertensive workers, 60% did not follow any diet, 52%
had given up their treatment and the main reason for giving
up the treatment was the disappearance of the clinical
symptoms (61.5%).
Conclusion: Knowledge on arterial hypertension was
weak and the behavioral risk factors frequent among the
employees of this governmental institution in Lomé. Better
public heath education program must be initiated among
all the workers of our country in order to slow down the
progression of this disease which is becoming one of the
first causes of mortality in our country because of the
epidemiologic transition.