Determinants of health-related quality of life of hypertensive patients attending a primary care clinic in North-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Blood pressure control is critical for preventing cardiovascular disease, and studies have shown that people with high blood pressure have a lower quality of life than people with normal blood pressure. The goal of this study was to find out how hypertension patients in North-Eastern Nigeria rated their Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQoL). This was a cross-sectional study of 277 hypertensive patients of the General Outpatient Clinic of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi. Data collection was via a questionnaire that included Bulpitt and Fletcher's specific HRQoL questionnaire. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to analyze the data. The data was summarized using frequency and percentages, while Chi-square was used to test for the relationship. The p-values of less than 0.05 were used to determine statistical significance. The respondents' average age was 53.1±14.6 years (age range between 20 to 90 years), and 187 (67.5%) of them were female, with 183 (66.1%) of the participants currently married at the time of the study. The HRQoL mean score for respondents was 0.90±0.08, which was close to the optimal value of 1. None of the socio-demographic or clinical characteristics were found to be significantly linked to HRQoL. This study showed that the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of hypertensive patients have little effect on HRQoL, with participants scoring near the maximum on the Bulpitt and Fletcher's specific HRQoL questionnaire.