Knowledge of risk factors and consequences of hypertension among individuals with hypertension who were aware and unaware of their hypertensive status, as well as those with normal blood pressure
| Characteristic | With hypertension and aware (n=132) | With hypertension and unaware (n=218) | pawareness | With normal BP (n=291) | pnormotensive |
| n (%)* | n (%)* | ||||
| How does hypertension affect one’s health? | |||||
| It adversely affects health. | 63 (48) | 43 (20) | <0.001 | 90 (31) | 0.006 |
| I have no idea/I don’t know. | 69 (52) | 175 (80) | 201 (69) | ||
| Treating hypertension reduces likelihood of other diseases. | |||||
| Yes | 16 (12) | 8 (4) | 0.006 | 20 (7) | 0.19 |
| No/Don’t know | 116 (88) | 210 (96) | 271 (93) | ||
| Treating hypertension reduces likelihood of:† | |||||
| Heart disease | 4 (25) | 1 (12) | 0.85 | 3 (15) | 0.79 |
| Stroke | 2 (13) | 0 (0) | 2 (10) | ||
| Heart disease and stroke | 7 (44) | 5 (63) | 6 (30) | ||
| Heart disease and cancer | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 2 (10) | ||
| Don’t know | 3 (18) | 2 (25) | 7 (35) | ||
| Do the following help reduce blood pressure? | |||||
| Reducing alcohol consumption | |||||
| Yes | 20 (15) | 25 (11) | 0.54 | 30 (10) | 0.90 |
| No/Don’t know | 112 (85) | 193 (89) | 261 (90) | ||
| Weight loss in those who are overweight | |||||
| Yes | 21 (16) | 21 (10) | 0.15 | 16 (6) | 0.15 |
| No/Don’t know | 111 (84) | 197 (90) | 275 (94) | ||
| Increasing intake of fresh fruit s and vegetables | |||||
| Yes | 31 (23) | 21 (10) | 0.001 | 23 (8) | 0.74 |
| No/Don’t know | 101 (77) | 197 (90) | 268 (92) | ||
| Increasing physical activity | |||||
| Yes | 20 (15) | 18 (8) | 0.07 | 25 (9) | 0.99 |
| No/Don’t know | 112 (85) | 200 (92) | 266 (91) | ||
| Reducing salt intake‡ | |||||
| Yes | 91 (69) | 101 (47) | <0.001 | 130 (45) | 0.92 |
| No/Don’t know | 41 (31) | 116 (53) | 161 (55) | ||
| Number of risk factors correctly identified | |||||
| 0 | 40 (30) | 111 (51) | 0.02 | 154 (53) | 0.99 |
| 1 | 48 (36) | 65 (30) | 95 (33) | ||
| 2 | 18 (14) | 22 (10) | 17 (6) | ||
| 3 | 11 (8) | 8 (4) | 12 (4) | ||
| 4 | 9 (7) | 7 (3) | 6 (2) | ||
| 5 | 6 (5) | 5 (2) | 7 (2) | ||
| Median score (Q1, Q3) | 1 (0, 2) | 0 (0, 1) | 0.008 | 0 (0, 1) | 1.00 |
P values are the outcomes of Pearson’s χ2 test for categorical data and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for continuous data. pawareness, p value for difference between those with hypertension and aware (n=132) versus those with hypertension and unaware (n=218). pnormotensive, p value for difference between those with hypertension and unaware (n=218) versus with normal blood pressure (n=291). P values are adjusted by the Dunn-Sidak correction to account for the fact that two comparisons were made.
*Percentage unless otherwise specified.
†Includes only those who answered ‘Yes’ to whether treating hypertension reduces likelihood of other diseases.
‡One missing observation for those unaware of their hypertensive status.
BP, blood pressure; Q1, quartile 1; Q3, quartile.