Factors Influencing Self-Care Behaviors in Hypertension Patients With Complications

Purpose: While hypertension with accompanying complications remains a life-threatening illness, a critical program in its management and prevention is implementing self-care behaviors (SCBs). This study examined the factors associated with SCB that are dominant in hypertension patients with complications. Materials and Methods: This quantitative study was conducted using the regression analytic method and a cross-sectional approach. The non-probability sampling technique was used, and the response rate was 96.2%. Data were collected using a modified hypertension self-care profile (HBP-SCP) questionnaire, hypertension knowledge questionnaire, family support questionnaire, and the brief-illness perception questionnaire (B-IPQ). Results: The mean total SCB score was high at 55.9% with a mean of 191.01, SD = 5.16; 77.5% of the respondents had no disease history, 80.4% had good knowledge, 58.8% had strong family support, and 50% had a good perception of the disease. Factors that were significantly related to SCB were family support (p = 0.00, r = 0.75) and illness perception (p = 0.00, r = 0.77), while disease history (r = 0.47) and knowledge were not significantly related (r = 0.13). Moreover, the analysis of multiple linear regression with the backward method showed that the most dominant factor influencing SCB was illness perception (p = 0.00, = 0.47, B = 0.495, R2 = 0.650). The effect of illness perception on SCB (65%) meant that each 0.50 perception score increased the SCB score by one. Conclusion: It is recommended that health workers increase patient perception using innovative interventions to improve the SCB of hypertension patients with complications. Keywords: disease history, disease perception, family support, hypertension complications, self-care behaviors