School of Public Health (Journal Articles)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37879

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Hypertension

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    Hypertension in a rural community in South Africa: what they know, what they think they know and what they recommend
    (BioMed Central, 2019-03) Klipstein-Grobusch, Kerstin; Jongen, Vita W.; Lalla-Edward, Samanta T.; Vos, Alinda G.; Godijk, Noortje G.; Tempelman, Hugo; Grobbee, Diederick E.; Devillé, Walter
    Background: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease and has a high prevalence in South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. However, awareness of hypertension has been reported to be low. Health programmes can increase awareness of hypertension and its causes, but hinge on the knowledge and perception of the targeted community. Therefore, this study investigated knowledge on and perceptions about hypertension of community members in a rural area in Limpopo, South Africa with the aim to increase awareness of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the local population. Methods: Using a mixed methods study approach, 451 participants of the Ndlovu Cohort Study, attending a follow-up visit between August 2017 and January 2018, completed a questionnaire on cardiovascular risk perception. A knowledge score was calculated for all participants. Sixty participants were invited to participate in six focus group discussions, of which 56 participated. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, transcripts coded, and thematic analysis of the data undertaken to obtain an understanding of knowledge and perception of hypertension in the community. Results: Most members of the community seemed to have intermediate (74.3%) or good (14.0%) knowledge of hypertension based on the knowledge score, and only 11.8% of the population had poor knowledge. The risk factors of hypertension seemed to be well known in the community. Poverty was identified as a major vulnerability in this community limiting choices for healthy lifestyles such as nutritious foods, recreational physical activity and accessing health care timely. Participants proposed community-based activities as an effective way to reach out to community members for prevention and management of hypertension. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for improved health promotion efforts to increase knowledge of hypertension in rural communities, and to address poverty as a major obstacle to healthy life-style choices.
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    Alcohol use and optimal chronic diseases’ treatment outcomes among adults aged 40 years and above in rural South Africa
    (Nature Research, 2025-03) Mupfuti, Rumbidzai; Kabudula, Chodziwadziwa. W.; Francis, Joel Msafiri
    Chronic diseases are significant problems in South Africa. Chronic diseases’ treatment outcomes are critical to the reduction of morbidity and mortality. There is limited data in South Africa on alcohol use and treatment outcomes of chronic diseases in older people. Understanding the association between alcohol use and chronic diseases treatment outcomes would inform potential interventions to address the duo. We analysed data from wave 1 of the Health and Ageing in Africa-a longitudinal Study in an INDEPTH community (HAALSI) study. We performed descriptive analysis to determine the prevalence of optimal chronic diseases’ treatment outcomes (suppressed HIV viral load, normal blood pressure and normal blood sugar- euglycemia) and applied modified Poisson regression to determine the association between alcohol use and chronic diseases’ treatment outcomes. The prevalence of optimal treatment outcomes was 87.4% suppressed viral load for those living with HIV, 42.7% normal blood pressure for hypertensives, 53.6% with euglycemia among diabetics and 52.4% with normal outcome parameters among those with multimorbidity. Alcohol use did not negatively impact the optimal treatment outcomes for HIV (aRR = 1.00, 95%CI 0.93–1.09), hypertension (aRR = 0.88, 95%CI 0.68–1.14), diabetes mellitus (aRR = 0.73, 95%CI 0.44–1.22), and multimorbidity (aRR = 1.00, 95%CI 0.93–1.09). Alcohol use was not significantly associated with treatment outcomes possibly due to underreporting of alcohol use. There is need to incorporate objective alcohol measurements and alcohol interventions in chronic diseases care settings. Furthermore, there is urgent need to strengthen the management of hypertension and diabetes, by adopting the strategies deployed for HIV management.