knowledge, awareness, attitudes and practice about hypertension in hypertensive patients referring to public health care centers in khoor & biabanak 2009

abstract background : hypertension is one of the most crucial health problems and most common chronic disease in developed and underdeveloped countries, which is called silent killer. usually diagnosis happens suddenly. despite this fact that is a preventable and treatable condition but without treatment it leads to serious and life threatening complications (such as heart, kidney and brain destruction), and in most cases these complications result in disability. it can be prevented by , increas knowledge and awareness, chang attitude and practice. prevention, plays significant role in controlling this disease. methods: a cross-sectional, correlation-descriptive study was conducted in one stage, by one group. two hundred thirty four (234) patients were recruited by random sampling among hypertensive patients referring to public health care centers in khoor & biabanak( an area in isfahan iran). data gathering was carried out with a questionnaire. data analysis was carried out spss software with descriptive and inferential statistics. results : findings indicate that there is significant relationship between awareness and knowledge; awareness and attitude; awareness and practice. there is no significant relationship between knowledge and attitude; or knowledge and practice. in addition, there is significant relationship between attitude and practice. conclusions : although patients relatively had high awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice about their disease but still their hypertension was not under control. several barriers are associated with uncontrolled hypertension particularly treatment-related barriers. findings suggest further studies to determine new effective strategies to solve this problem. key words : knowledge, awareness, attitude, practice, hypertension.