Comparing and determining factors associated with hypertension self-care profiles of patients in two multi-ethnic Asian countries: cross-sectional studies between two study populations

Objectives To compare the sociodemography, disease characteristics and hypertension self-care profiles and to determine the factors influencing Hypertension Self-Care Profiles (HTN-SCP) in two populations in primary care settings from Singapore and Malaysia. Design Cross-sectional, cross national. Setting Multi-centre, primary care clinics Malaysia and Singapore. Participants 1123 adults with hypertension enrolled and analysed. Primary and secondary outcome measures Comparison between sociodemography, disease characteristics and the mean scores of HTN-SCP domains (behaviour, motivation and self-efficacy) and the factors influencing hypertension self-care. Results 1123 adults with hypertension attending primary care clinics in Malaysia and Singapore were involved. The participants’ mean age was 63.6 years (SD 9.7) in Singapore and 60.4 (SD 9.1) in Malaysia. Most of the participants in Singapore had tertiary education (22.3%) compared with Malaysia (13.0%), p<0.001. A higher proportion of participants from Singapore had controlled blood pressure (74.6%) compared with Malaysia (33.8%), p<0.001. The mean total score of HTN-SCP was significantly higher among Singapore participants compared with Malaysia participants 190 (SD 28) versus 184 (SD 23) (p