Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of the Community Towards Risk Factors to Cardiovascular Diseases in Koro Sub-county, Gulu District.

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases, which were once considered diseases of the rich, are increasing among the poor people. World Health Organization estimated the annual global burden of cardiovascular diseases at 17.3 million deaths a year in 2012. In Uganda, cardiovascular diseases accounted for 4% of the deaths. The knowledge, attitude and practice towards risk factors to cardiovascular diseases is lacking.

Descriptive community based cross-sectional study was conducted in Koro sub-county, in Gulu district from April - October 2014 to establish knowledge, attitude and practices towards risk factors to cardiovascular disease. Sample size of 184 respondents was randomly selected for the study. Data was collected using researcher administered questionnaire. Threats to data validity were minimized by pre-testing the tool. Data was entered in Epi-Info 3.5.1 and exported to STATA 10 for analysis.

Out of 184 respondents interviewed, 54.3% were male while 45.6% were female. More than half (69.6%) were non-smokers while 51% reported history of hypertension. About 85% were aware of cardiovascular diseases; of which, 52.2% reported having got the knowledge from health workers. Over 65.2% of respondents defined cardiovascular diseases as diseases of the heart. Though 35.3% of the respondents never knew the causes of cardiovascular diseases 45.6% related it to poor life style and 2.7% reported Ebola as a type of cardiovascular disease. About 91.3% of the respondents reported that they would change their eating habits. Majority had disagreed that cardiovascular diseases were diseases for the rich people while 63.0% reported that cardiovascular diseases were preventable. About 67.4% reported that behavioral change would reduce risk of cardiovascular diseases while 76.6% would recommend low fat diet. Over 71% of respondents never checked their blood sugar level, 61.4% never checked body weight while 60.8% never did physical exercise. However, 84.7% ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, 77.7% had reduced excessive cigarette smoking while 73.9% had reduced excessive alcohol drinking. The study revealed that the level of awareness about cardiovascular diseases was high and the community had positive attitude towards control and preventive measures, but their practices towards the risk factors such as excessive alcohol consumption, excessive cigarette smoking, regular exercise and medical check-up were still lacking and inadequate.

It is recommended that government should invest more in sensitizing the public about the importance of regular exercise, producing enough food and discourage public from harmful life-style practices such as excessive consumption of alcohol and cigarette smoking and regulate the consumption of such products in public places.