Level of self-care practices and associated factors among hypertensive patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ObjectivesThe study assessed the level of self-care practice and its predictors among hypertensive patients in the health centers of Bole Sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsA multi-Center-based cross-sectional study that employed 370 hypertensive participants at the conveniently selected Health Centers in Bole Sub-City; from August 01-30, 2020. The researchers selected the participants based on a simple random sampling method after applying for a pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaire and secured for informed consent. All the statistical analyses were SPSS 22.0 software based. The authors used binary logistics regression to identify the presence and strength of association; with its respective 95%CI and p-value less than five percent as a significant level.ResultsThe overall level of good self-care practice among hypertensive patients was 53.0% (95% CI: 47.2-58.8%) whereas 61.4%, 63.8%, 92.7%, 82.7%, and 18% of the study participants were adherent to medication, good weight management, non-smokers, alcohol abstainers and physical activity consecutively. Being illiterate had 2.347 and 2.084 times higher odds of having had good self-care practice compared to secondary school and a diploma or above consecutively. Being a merchant, civil, and retired were associated with good self-care practice than being unemployed.Conclusion and recommendationThe study reported a lower level of self-care practice in the study settings. Educational level and occupation were factors identified for self-care practice. The authors recommended policymakers, healthcare workers, and researchers work on the identified factors of self-care practice of hypertensive participants in the study settings.