To Assess Knowledge and Practice of Hypertensive Patients Regarding Prevention of Myocardial Infarction

Background: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death globally. More people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause. An estimated 17.5 million people died from CVDs in 2012, representing 31% of all global deaths. Good knowledge and practice is required for prevention and control of myocardial infarction. Objective: To assess knowledge and practice of hypertensive patients regarding prevention of myocardial infarction. Methods: A cross-sectional hospital based study was conducted at Cardiology Dept. Islami Bank community Hospital Faridpur and 250 Bedded General Hospital, Gopalgonj, Bangladesh January to June 2021. Among 100 hypertensive patients were included. Purposive sampling method was used to select calculated number of study participants. Data was collected by interview method using structured questionnaire and descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data. Results: Total 100 hypertensive respondents, more than half (54.0%) had high level of knowledge whereas 46.0% had low level of knowledge regarding prevention of MI. Similarly, 56.0% had good practice and were taking the appropriate preventive measures of MI, though, 44.0% had poor practice. This study revealed that knowledge level was significantly (P=0.002) higher among female (73.2%) than to male (43.2%). This study found significant association of knowledge with gender, education and socio-economic status. In the same manner, there was significant association of practice with awareness of disease. Conclusion: Heart disease is a significant problem among adult population. So assessing the knowledge regarding preventive heart disease could be the effective measure to prevent heart disease. Thus, further awareness regarding prevention of MI needs to be provided to hypertensive patients and large scale study should be planned to identify the determinants of knowledge and practice of prevention of MI among hypertensive patients.