The topic we learned this week is “Prevalence of, and barriers to, preventive lifestyle behaviors in hypertension(from a national survey of Canadian with hypertension)”. Few studies have examined the use of, and barriers to, these behaviors. To describe the use of lifestyle changes for blood pressure control and to identify the barriers to these behaviors, the data from 6142 Canadians with hypertension who responded to the 2009 Survey on Living With Chronic Diseases in Canada were analyzed.

    Through this study, we found that most Canadians with diagnosed hypertension reported engaging in lifestyle behaviors for blood pressure control. A low desire, interest, or awareness were commonly reported barriers to salt restriction, changes in diet, weight loss, smoking cessation, and alcohol reduction. The most common barrier to engaging in physical activity to regulate blood pressure was the self-reported challenge of managing a coexisting physical condition or time constraints. Programs and interventions to improve the adherence to lifestyle changes in hypertension may could be enhanced by considering these factors in their design.

    There are several limitations in the finding. First, our use of cross-sectional data precluded an examination of how behavioral adherence might vary over time. Second, given the self-reported nature of the data, it remains unclear to what extent self-reported engagement in lifestyle behaviors reflects true engagement and whether the reported barriers to lifestyle change reflect real or perceived barriers. Another limitation was that it was necessary to combine subjects who either never engaged in therapeutic lifestyle change or who no longer engaged in these behaviors.

                                                     (Li Nannan)