Abstract:
Hypertension is the crucial public health problem that threatened to lives of Thai people. The purpose of this qualitative research was to study social context and life style, knowledge, attitude, consuming behaviors of those living with hypertension as well as health services concerning hypertension in Tambon Kubua, Amphur Muang, Ratchaburi province. The key informants approached by purposive sampling consisted of participants including hypertension patients, caregivers, health volunteers, the members of local administrative organizations, public health officers, village headmen, teachers, and nursing students. The data were collected between October, 2007 to December, 2007 using in-depth interview, focus group, and non-participated observation. Triangulation method was employed to test for reliability. The data were then analyzed by content analysis.
The research findings revealed as for the demographic data, the majority (77.8%) of subjects were female, aged were between 61-70 year(29.4%),almost half (20.5%) were employed, and almost half (59.3) had 2,000-5,000 baths income. That consuming behaviors were related to their life style and original culture that people consume sodium in a variety of foods. Although the time changes, this kind of consuming behaviors still remain. Nowadays, the people consume sodium from various foods such as beverages, spices, and snacks. In this regards, the risk from complications of hypertension in patients will be increasing. In addition, generally in health teaching, promoting physical care and consuming lower sodium foods were emphasized but promoting potency in self-care abilities concerning appropriate consumer behaviors related to their conditions and contexts were lacked.
Suggestions: 1. Health services should emphasize on knowledge of consuming lower sodium foods and self-care behavior tailoring patients conditions and contexts.
2. For those living with hypertension, cooking habits have to be changed in order to decrease their risk from complications and to control their blood pressure, in this regard, collaboration among communities and related organizations are in need.