Abstract

Harsha Pudhota Choudary, Dr. P. Radha Kumari*, Dr. Phani Kumar and Dr. R. Nageswara Rao

ABSTRACT

Background: Hypertension is currently global health concern resulting in increased morbidity & mortality among population. Medical students have a role as future physicians and public health advocates in the management of cardiovascular disease related habits may predict their preparedness for this role. So the present study was carried to know the knowledge, attitude and practices towards risk factors of hypertension among undergraduate medical students. Methodology: A cross-sectional description study conducted among undergraduate medical students of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, in the month of September 2020. One medical college was randomly selected by simple random technique from three medical colleges present in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Data was collected from under graduate medical students from second, fifth, seventh and ninth semesters by developing a questionnaire in Google forms. A pretested and semi structured questionnaire was developed for collection of data and was the same questionnaire was created in Google forms. The data was analyzed in EPIINFO version 3.0 software. chi-square test was used to elicit the association between knowledge, attitude, practices and demographic variables. Results: In the present study knowledge regarding hypertension and its associated risk factors is found to be increasing as years of study is increasing. Positive attitude towards risk factors for hypertension is found to be maximum (99.3%) among final years. Only 47% of the study population are doing adequate physical exercise and walking is found to be the common physical activity. Harmful habits like tobacco use, alcohol intake and high salt intake is found to be very low in the present study. There is a significant relation between checking of blood pressure, salt usage and adequate physical exercise and students from families having and not having medical professionals. Conclusion: Knowledge and attitude medical students of various semesters are good towards risk factors of hypertension but the warning signs are about half of study participants are not doing regular physical exercise & eating junk food & some of them are having habits of alcohol, smoking which are modifiable risk factors that leads to hypertension at very early age. Strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease among the young population should be put in place.