DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i11.044

Pages: 4534-4540

Salt restriction in diet is an accepted health promoting behaviour in thecontrol of hypertension in patients. The practice needs lifelong adherence and overcoming of barriers and temptations. Pender’s health promotion model [HPM] helps understanding the various factors influencing salt restriction along with theoretical approach to achieve it. This is a cross sectional study done among hypertensive patients attending the primary care centre in urban Chidambaram, Tamilnadu. The participants were assessed for their salt intake patternwith subjective estimation of sodium intake by 3 days dietary recall. The patients were assessed with the constructs of HPM to determine the indicators predicting the individual dietary intake of sodium and their influences using a pre-tested and structured interview schedule. Pearson’s correlation was used to analyze the association between dietary sodium intake and constructs of HPM. The constructs were fitted into a structural equation model to study the direct and indirect effects of each construct on the dietary sodium intake which predicts the salt restriction behaviour of the individual. The results revealed that higher perceived self efficacy and perceived benefits among individuals were the predominant indicators which lead to salt restriction behaviour. Thus it was concluded that imparting knowledge about benefits of salt reduction in hypertension along with motivation of the patients’ results in a higher self efficacy of patients which leads to better adherence to salt restriction as a control measure.