International Journal of Advances in Medicine | January 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 1 Page 67 International Journal of Advances in Medicine Rathod GG et al. Int J Adv Med. 2020 Jan;7(1):67-71 http://www.ijmedicine.com pISSN 2349-3925 | eISSN 2349-3933 Original Research Article Assessment of knowledge regarding hypertension and its preventive measures among students of Government Science College of North Gujarat region, India Gaurang Gunvantbhai Rathod 1 , Namrata J. Vadodariya 1 *, Nilesh Thakor 2 INTRODUCTION Hypertension emerged as major public health problem. As blood pressure gradually increases with age, proper management leads to prevention of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and renal diseases Due to socio-economic and epidemiological transition of population; hypertension becomes the commonest cardiovascular disorder and emerged as major public health concern. 1 For cardiovascular mortality, hypertension is one of the major risk factors. Hypertension contributes 13% to global mortality. It is one of the common preventable risk factors for other non- ABSTRACT Background: Many adult health problems e.g. hypertension, diabetes has their early origins in early adulthood, because this is the time when lifestyles are formed. Objective of this study was to determine the level of awareness among college students regarding hypertension and its preventive measures before and after educational interventional training. Methods: An interventional study conducted in college students of Government Science college of Vadnagar city, Gujarat. Duration of the study was March to October 2019. Total 100 students between the age group of 17-19 were included after written informed consent. Baseline knowledge of students regarding hypertension and its preventive measures was assessed by pre-designed, pre-tested and semi structured questionnaire. Single educational interventional training for 45 minutes was given to selected students. Post- intervention knowledge of students for the same was assessed after training. Thus, collected data was analyzed using SPSS 17 (Trial Version). Results: Baseline knowledge of the students regarding normal range of blood pressure, risk factors of hypertension and signs and symptoms of hypertension was 21%, 30% and 40% respectively which was significantly increased to 64%, 79% and 72% respectively after educational intervention. Baseline knowledge of the students regarding preventive measures of hypertension like avoiding junk food/ healthy diet, exercise and meditation was 26%, 29% and 6% respectively which was significantly increased to 79%, 81% and 72% respectively after educational intervention. Conclusions: Efforts should be directed towards educating the college students about hypertension to change their lifestyles and reduce the incidence of hypertension in later life. Keywords: Assessment, Early adulthood, Hypertension, Knowledge, Students 1 Department of Medicine, 2 Department of Community Medicine, GMERS Medical College, Vadnagar, Gujarat, India Received: 07 November 2019 Revised: 22 November 2019 Accepted: 28 November 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Namrata J. Vadodariya, E-mail: dr.namrata.jv@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3933.ijam20195581