Knowledge on arterial hypertension in general population: Results from a community pharmacy screening program

• DOI: 10.1016/j.numecd.2021.01.004
• Publication Date: 2021-01-14T18:35:50Z
• Authors: Elvira Fanelli; Lorenzo Ravetto Enri; Marco Pappaccogli; Chiara Fasano; Silvia Di Monaco; Irene Pignata; Francesca Baratta; Elisabetta Eula; Guglielmo Masera; Massimo Mana; Franco Rabbia; Paola Brusa; Franco Veglio
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Community Pharmacy Services; Middle Aged; Risk Assessment; Health Literacy; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Italy; Risk Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Hypertension; Preventive Health Services; Humans; Arterial Pressure; Female; Healthy Lifestyle; Community pharmacies; Health education; Hypertension; Prevention; Adult; Aged; Antihypertensive Agents; Arterial Pressure; Female; Healthy Lifestyle; Humans; Italy; Male; Middle Aged; Preventive Health Services; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Risk Reduction Behavior; Surveys and Questionnaires; Community Pharmacy Services; Health Education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Literacy; Hypertension; Health Education; Risk Reduction Behavior; Antihypertensive Agents; Aged

Hypertension is a risk factor for renal, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It is responsible for a large proportion of overall morbidity and mortality every year. Hypertension-mediated organ damage is largely not reversible. For these reasons, prevention has primary importance: sensibilization of population on hypertension-related consequences is essential for therapeutic adherence and reduction of unhealthy lifestyle behaviour. This study aimed to evaluate awareness about hypertension among community pharmacies customers.A questionnaire about hypertension was collected by 2731 customers from 94 community pharmacies in North West Italy, during a hypertension screening program. Hypertension awareness was unsatisfactory in a large proportion of the sample, with only 15% of subjects having an overall good level of knowledge. Furthermore, lower awareness was associated to higher blood pressure values (132/79 ± 19/11 mmHg vs 128/78 ± 18/10 mmHg, p < 0.001) and subjects resulted hypertensive or uncontrolled despite antihypertensive therapy, presented worse questionnaire scores (4.7 ± 1.9 vs 4.9 ± 2.0, p = 0.03).Knowledge about hypertension is largely unsatisfactory among population. Community pharmacies may play as a setting for health education and hypertension screening.