Relationship between illness perceptions and nutritional knowledge with eating behaviors among Ardabil rural hypertensive patients

Patients knowledge and perceptions from hypertension and related nutrition as a central factor has important role in hypertension controlling. This study aimed to determine relationship between illness perceptions and nutritional knowledge with eating behaviors on rural hypertensive patients. In a cross-sectional study, 671 hypertensive patients were selected as a multi-stage random sampling with inclusion criteria from the rural areas of Ardabil city in 2013. Data collecting instrument include from 4-part questionnaire included demographic questions and questions about dietary knowledge, illness perception and 3-day food registering questionnaire. Data were collected by trained health workers with Interview and nutritional data include macronutrients (Fat, Cholesterol, Protein, Carbohydrate and Total Energy) extracted with Nutritionist 4 (N4) software Analyzed using Excel 2007, SPSS - 18 and Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression, considering the significance level at 0.05. 74% of participants were female; mean (SD) age was 50.2 ± 6.4 years, duration of disease 5.9 ± 4 years. Majority of participants 75.9% (509 patients) had elementary education. Patient illness perception and knowledge was moderate. Fat intake was 92.1gr, protein 110.3 g and carbohydrates 317 g per day, also the average daily energy intake was 2539 kcal. Perception scores correlated positively significant with nutritional knowledge (P<0.01, r=0.583) and negatively significant correlated with fat(P<0.01, r= - 0.352), cholesterol(P<0.01, r= - 0.09), energy intake(P<0.01, r= - 0.318), systolic (P<0.01, r= - 0.614) and diastolic blood pressure(P<0.01, r=0.400). Nutritional knowledge as well as was found a significant negatively correlation with mean fat, cholesterol, energy intake, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Regression model showed that the nutritional knowledge and illness perception can be predicted 47.8% of systolic blood pressure variance. Patients nutritional perceptions was not satisfactory, patient’s energy intake and fat intake were higher than recommended amounts by related scientific organizations.