Level of self-care practice and associated factors among hypertensive patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, south west Ethiopia

Abstract Background: Globally hypertension is a major public health problem and leading cause of mortality in developing countries. Self-care practice encourage hypertensive patients to have better quality of life by preventing complication and decrease health care expenditure. The aim of this study is to assess self-care practice and associated factors among hypertension patients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, south west Ethiopia.Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study was employed on 322 adult hypertensive patients using simple random sampling procedure between March to May, 2016. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Adjusted odds ratio at 95% CI was considered to declare the independent effect of independents variables on the outcome.Result: In this study, the overall participants with the recommended level of self-care practice were found to be 44.7%. Being employed [AOR = 2.032, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: (1.162, 3.552), educational attainment (AOR = 3.730, 95% CI: (1.837, 7.576) and presence of comorbidity diseases (AOR = 0.502, 95% CI:0.2886, 0.8850) were factors significantly associated with self-care practice.Conclusion and recommendation: This study revealed levels of self-care practice were low among hypertensive patients. Occupation, educational status and comorbidity were factors significantly associated with self-care practice. Hypertensive patients with low socioeconomic status, no formal educational attainment and with co-morbidity needs special attention to improve their self-care practice.