Evaluation of the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of individuals diagnosed with hypertension who applied to family medicine outpatient clinic of ordu Universitesi Eğitim ve Araştirma Hospital

Purpose: The aim of this study was to measure the level of knowledge of individuals diagnosed with hypertension about hypertension and to investigate their attitudes and behaviors in managing the disease. Material and Method: In this cross-sectional study, a 42-question questionnaire was administered by face-to-face interview technique to individuals diagnosed with hypertension aged 18 years and older who applied to Ordu University Family Medicine outpatient clinics for any reason between 10.07.2023 and 10.04.2024, after providing information about the study and recording the sociodemographic data of volunteers who agreed to participate in the study. Data were analyzed with IBM V23 (Chicago, USA). The significance level was taken as p<0.05. Results: In our study, questionnaire forms of 330 patients were evaluated. Of the volunteers who participated in the study, 215 were female and 115 were male. The mean age was 63.19± 11.59 years. In our study, 42.7% of the participants were on combined therapy, while the proportion of patients on monotherapy was 33.9%. The most common reason for discontinuation of medication in our study was that the blood pressure was normal and they felt well, and the second most common reason was taking too many medications. While 97.9% (n=323) of the participants answered that they were aware of the complications of hypertension, 2.1% (n=7) answered that they did not know. 91.2% (n=301) responded that high blood pressure causes stroke and 69.1% (n=228) responded that high blood pressure causes heart attack. Conclusion: In our study, it was found that the treatment compliance of patients diagnosed with hypertension was not at the desired level, patients were not sufficiently informed about the disease, and educational programs to provide patients with the right information were inadequate. Key Words: Family Medicine, Knowledge Level, Behavior Pattern Hypertension