THE STUDY OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HYPERTENSION AND LIFESTYLE MODIFICATIONS IN NON-PREGNANT FEMALES VISITING MEDICAL OPD IN DHQ HOSPITAL GUJRANWALA

Introduction: Increasing prevalence of hypertension is of serious concern as it is associated with increase morbidity and mortality. DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) and physical activity have an important role in management of this disease .Females in our country are generally underestimated in clinical setup so we chose them for study. Prior studies emphasize on lifestyle changes but do not explore the reason why most of the patients don’t follow these modifications. This study will help to find those reasons. Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was done among randomly selected 100 non-pregnant females visiting medical OPD, DHQ hospital Gujranwala. Data was collected on a questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS package version 21. Results: Results of the study show that most of the patients do not follow lifestyle changes because of their own negligent behavior. In addition to this other factors such as any comorbid condition, poor socioeconomic status, psychological issues and low literacy are also responsible. Conclusions: Literate females can better follow lifestyle modifications as compare to illiterate females. Key words: Hypertension, females, lifestyle modifications, effect of literacy