Abstract

Objective: Hypertension has been increased dramatically nowadays; this might be due to the modern life which increases the pressure on individuals. So, the study aims to assess the knowledge of risk factors of hypertension among the medical sciences students in International University of Africa (IUA). In the meantime, the relationship between hypertension and physical activity, family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and socio-demographic variables were also assessed in this study.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey among students of the first year in medical colleges, in IUA was conducted. The data obtained was analyzed using PASW, Chi square test, and binary logistic regression analysis was done.

Results: The study revealed that the age of participates was found 20 years 95 (41%), while the gender was found as following male 90 (39%) and 140 (61%) females, none of the participants is a smoker, while only 44(19%) have no family history of Hypertension. However, the faculties of students were found as following medicine 41%, medical laboratory 11%, nursing 15%, pharmacy 14% and dentistry 18%. On the other hand, the knowledge of normal blood pressure. Moreover, the highest prevalence was found 100% in nursing students, 92.3% in medical laboratory, 82.5% in dentistry, 66% in medicine and 61.8% in pharmacy.

Conclusions: The study found a different level of knowledge among first-year students in different medical colleges and many modifications in elementary courses might be needed to fill this gap.

Keywords: Hypertension; Risk factors knowledge; University medical students