Published Article

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to determine the secondary school teachers’ awareness and attitude towards risk factors of hypertension in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was all the 7,846 secondary school teachers in the North West Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State. A sample of 512 teachers was selected for the study using the multistage sampling procedure. Data for the study was collected using a researcher made questionnaire entitled “Awareness and Attitude towards Risk Factors of Hypertension Questionnaire (AARFHQ).” The instrument was face validated by five experts. Internal consistency reliability was conducted for the instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained for the instrument. Data collected for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Independent t-test and analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The finding of the study indicated that teachers have high awareness of risk factors of hypertension and a positive attitude towards prevention practices of hypertension. It was concluded that secondary school teachers in Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District are highly aware of the risk factors of hypertension and show positive attitudes toward its prevention It was recommended among others that health educators through school authorities should organize regular health education programmes on hypertension for teachers of all ages.