Hypertension or elevated blood pressure is one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide. One strategy to better treat hypertension is to involve patients in their own self-care. This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in West Java, Indonesia, from June to July 2021. A convenience sample of 144 adults with hypertension was used. The inclusion criteria were: people aged 35 to 65; prescribed two or fewer antihypertensive drugs for hypertension; with a blood pressure of more than 140/90 mm Hg at baseline; able to control their blood pressure and self-titrate medicine; and able to read and write in Bahasa Indonesia. The SC-HI is a 24-item questionnaire that assesses self-care in hypertension on three dimensions: self-care maintenance, management, and confidence. Linear regression analyses were used to investigate self-care and its associated factors. The average age of the patients was 55.67 ± 10.65 years, 59.7% were female, 77.8% were married, and 48.6% had finished secondary school. The mean overall self-care score among the hypertensive patients was 2.43 (SD = 1.26). The self-care domain with the lowest mean score was in confidence (mean = 2.12, SD = 1.96) and the highest score was in maintenance (mean = 2.86, SD = 2.01). Gender, education level, and duration of hypertension contributed significantly to the variance in self-care with an R-squared of 23.4%. We found that the level of self-care in the hypertensive patients in general was inadequate. Patients should be educated and counseled about the importance of adherence to self-care in the management of hypertension.
Keywords: self-care, hypertension, self-management