Abstract

A Merlin Cheema1, Ankit Kumar Sahu1, Pushpa kumari2, Rajat Mallik2, Sanjay Singh2, Sheel Priya2, Shikha Bhadauria2, Shivam Yadav2, Sonam Pal2

Background: Now-a-days many people actively seek ways to maintaining and improve their health by adopting good lifestyle practices. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is associated with modifiable risk factors such as smoking, alcohol, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus. Most of the familial association of CVD are related to unhealthy dietary habits. Current CVD cases in India are estimated at 60 million and are expected to rise to close to 200 million in next decade, making it heart capital of the world. It is imperative to understand that CVD prevention can be achieved only with lifestyle modifications and good health practices.

Objective: We aimed to analyze and determine the relationship of the knowledge and practices related to lifestyle modifications and of knowledge and practice of life style modifications among hospitalized cardiac patients in a tertiary care hospital of northern India. Methods: 60 patients using purposive sampling technique were included in this descriptive, observational, questionnaire-based study. A structured validated questionnaire to assess knowledge and practice was used for data collection after obtaining due approval from institutional ethics committee.

Results: Mean knowledge and practice score of the study participants was 12.5±1.4 and 6.6±0.7, respectively. Out of the total participants (n=60), 25 (41.7%) had good knowledge,31(51.7%) had average knowledge and 4(6.6%) had poor knowledge regarding lifestyle and behavioral modifications. With regards to practice score, 13(21.7%) had good practice,46 (76.7%) had average practice and 1(1.6%) had poor practice. Socio-demographic variables like dietary patterns, education, occupation and body mass index significantly impacted the knowledge of patients regarding CVD prevention. Karl-Pearson coefficient showed perfect correlation between knowledge score and practices related to lifestyle modifications among cardiac patients with a �??r�?? score of 1.

Conclusion: Practice of lifestyle modifications regarding cardiovascular diseaseis a significant correlate of patient�??s knowledge which in turn is determined largely by patient education, occupation, dietary patterns and body mass index. A definite positive linear relationship exists between knowledge and good CVD prevention practices. Further interventional studies assessing various approaches to promote awareness regarding lifestyle modifications are required in cardiac patients.