ABSTRACT

This study aimed to determine health seeking behaviour towards hypertension among traders in Ubani market in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select308 traders, their age ranges between 20-60 years. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect information on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics, level of awareness about hypertension, knowledge scores about hypertension, level of knowledge of respondents on hypertension, respondent general health seeking behaviour, respondents health seeking behaviour towards hypertension, respondents’ perception on health facilities’ efficiency in treatment/management of hypertension, health seeking behaviour status of the respondents towards hypertension, perception of respondents towards risk of getting hypertension (susceptibility), perception of respondents towards severity of hypertension, perception towards benefits/barriers of preventive behaviour towards hypertension, anthropometric measurement of the respondents, socio-demographic predictors of health seeking behaviour of respondents towards hypertension, socio-demographic predictors of perception susceptibility of respondents towards hypertension, socio-demographic predictors of perception severity of respondents towards hypertension and socio-demographic predictors of perception benefits/barrier of respondents towards hypertension. There were eight (8) knowledge questions asked and each correctly answered question was given 12.5 marks thereby making it a total of 100 marks. The knowledge scores were further graded as follows; <40 = poor knowledge, 40-59 = average knowledge and 60-100 = good knowledge. IBM SPSS statistics (version 20) was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics (mean, frequency and percentage) were used to determine their socio-economic characteristics and awareness of hypertension,anthropometric status was assessed using World Health Organization (WHO). Most (46.8%) of them had only secondary education and a little above half (52.9%) of them make an earning less than ₦10,000. Majority (60.1%) had high health seeking behaviour status while only few (13.3%) had low health seeking behaviour status. Also, a little above average (52.6%) hadgood knowledge about hypertension status whereas only (36.7%) had poor knowledge. Majority (79.2%) had high susceptibility towards hypertension, while only few (20.8%) had low susceptibility towards hypertension. The result further reveals that majority (94.8%) of the respondent had low severity towards hypertension, while a little proportion (5.2%) had high severity towards hypertension, also majority (48.4%) had normal Body Mass Index (BMI); whereas most (35.1%) were at risk of obesity.Correlation was significant at 0.01 and 0.05 levels. There was no significant relationship between body mass index and knowledge, health seeking behaviour and perception. Regression analysis was used to analyze Socio-demographic predictors of health seeking behaviour, perception susceptibility, perception severity and perception benefits/barrier of respondents towards hypertension. This study revealed a good knowledge of hypertension and poor perception (severity) of traders towards hypertension. Public education inform of seminars/conferences and organizing a regular periodic screening for traders and community members will go a long way to help in tackling the issue.