Hezil Reema Barboza

Abstract

Hypertension is an important medical and public health issue. The risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure and renal disease associated with blood pressure has shown a proportional increase and with age the prevalence of hypertension increases. As a part of aim, we tried to analyse importance of primary health care (PHC) for the management of cardiovascular and renal diseases. About 100 hypertensive patients were selected with the knowledge of non-experimental descriptive design at selected hospitals of Mangaluru, Karnataka, India. Data were collected having the information of demography and related questionnaire. Feasibility was accessed based on initial pilot study by using SPSS version 23 software and percentage of knowledge score was 37.03. The results showed significant association between knowledge with the selected demographic variables such as age (?2= 15.040), gender (?2= 5.760), religion (?2= 16.580), educational status (?2= 55.280), occupation (?2=16.240), monthly income (?2=47.600), type of family (?2=47.060), area of residence (?2=21.160), dietary pattern (?2=14.780), habits (?2=11.040) and frequency of eating unhealthy junk food or having outside food (?2=40.160). The findings of the study revealed that the hypertensive patients had an average level of knowledge regarding control of hypertension through proper diet and there is a need to educate them to prevent life-threatening complications. Keywords: Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Hypertensive patients, Knowledge, Management.

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Abstract

Introduction: Road traffic accidents are the leading issues in health care sector. Every day thousands of people die and many will be left with physical disabilities which makes their family life more miserable. Road traffic accidents are commonly seen in teenagers and young adults. This study was conducted to understand the level of knowledge of teenagers on traffic safety rules and their attitude about it. Materials and Methods: A descriptive design was adopted for the study. The data was collected using structured knowledge questionnaire to understand the knowledge on regulations of traffic safety and attitude was measured using rating scale. The validity of the domains of questionnaire and rating scale was established in consultation with six experts. Reliability of the knowledge questionnaire was tested by using spilt half method and attitude scale by Cronbach’s alpha. Pretesting of tool and pilot study was conducted among 10 samples. Results: The study results showed 80% students had average knowledge on traffic safety rules and had a favorable attitude towards traffic safety rules. There was a significant association between level of knowledge and demographic variables such as such age (?2=0.044), and information regarding traffic safety rules (?2=0.043). There was a significant association between attitude and source of information regarding road safety rules (?2= 0.018). Conclusion: The finding of the study revealed that majority of the teenagers had average knowledge and had favorable attitude towards traffic safety rules. Keywords: Attitude, Driving license, Knowledge, Traffic safety accidents, Traffic safety rules.

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