Hypertension knowledge, attitudes and life-style practice among employees of a governmental institution in Lomé, Togo

Arterial hypertension is a great public health problem worldwide but it is often badly known by the populations. Aim: the purpose of present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices on the arterial hypertension among employees of a governmental institution in Lomé. Methods: It was a cross-sectional study among 207 employees of the ministry of agriculture and its departments, carried out from June 6 to July 5, 2010. Results: the prevalence of arterial hypertension was 54.1%. The average age was of 42.7 ± 9.8 years. No employee had a good level of knowledge, 12.6% had a mean level of knowledge and 87.4% had a bad level of knowledge. The main sources of information were the hypertensive patients (39.1%), the close relations (30.9%) and media (25.6%); 47.8% of the workers were unaware of their tensional level. 28% of the subjects had a fatty food, 20.3% had salted food and 6.8% were smokers. Among the hypertensive workers, 60% did not follow any diet, 52% had given up their treatment and the main reason for giving up the treatment was the disappearance of the clinical symptoms (61.5%). Conclusion: Knowledge on arterial hypertension was weak and the behavioral risk factors frequent among the employees of this governmental institution in Lomé. Better public heath education program must be initiated among all the workers of our country in order to slow down the progression of this disease which is becoming one of the first causes of mortality in our country because of the epidemiologic transition. © Éditions ESKA, 2013.