The Relationship Between Knowledge, Attitude, and Health Care Behaviors of Older Adults with Hypertension Living in Rural Areas of Ubon Ratchathani Province
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/dcj.2026.22Keywords:
healthcare behavior, hypertension, older adult, rural areaAbstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and healthcare behaviors among older adults with hypertension. The participants were 160 older adults with hypertension residing in a rural area of Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand. Proportional sampling by village followed by simple random sampling was employed. The instruments included a knowledge assessment and a structured questionnaire, both of which were validated for content by experts. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient with a statistical significance level set at 0.05. About half of participants were women (53.1%), with an average age of 69.4 years (SD=6.2), and the majority worked as farmers (91.2%). Only 12,5% were at good level of knowledge, however 39.4 % were at the level of need improvement. 67.5% were at good level of attitude and only 21.9% were at good level of healthcare behaviors regarding hypertension. A significant relationship was found between attitudes toward hypertension and healthcare behaviors (p<0.001), which suggests that fostering positive attitudes in community-based hypertension control programs could lead to improved healthcare behaviors.
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