| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 護理學系 === 101 === This study is aimed at developing a questionnaire to measure hypertension patient’s perceived risk of complications and to discover the variables affecting it. It adopts cross-section survey, interviewing 197 patients with hypertension in a Northern Taiwan medical center from December of 2012 to March of 2013 in the manner of purposive sampling.
The questionnaire concerning perceived risk is divided into perceived possibility and perceived severity and each section contains 15 questions. After analyzing the content validity and construct validity of this questionnaire, it is concluded that the perceived possibility is 0.88 and the perceived severity is 0.94. In addition, the four factors, financial performance risk, social risk, physical risk, and psychological risk, may account for 80.27% of the variables of perceived possibility and 86.92% of those of perceived severity. Moreover, the internal consistency test shows that Cronbach’s α of perceived possibility and perceived severity is 0.95 and 0.97 respectively, while the test-retest reliability test suggests that ICC of perceived possibility and perceived severity is 0.89 and 0.95, indicating that this questionnaire of perceived risk has good reliability and validity.
According to the study result, hypertension patients tend to have less perceived severity of the disease complications than its perceived possibility. Moreover, among the four factors affecting perceived risks, physical risk scores the highest, while social risk the lowest. The study result indicates that males tend to have higher perceived risks than their female counterparts. Besides, for those hypertension male patients who are with hyperlipidemia, diabetes, multiple diseases, hypertension family history, multiple hypertension medication, perceived poor or very poor health, BMI overweight or obesity, multiple hypertension symptoms, and abnormal urine acid test results may have better perceived risks. Based on the analysis of stepwise regression, a patient’s number of hypertension symptoms and BMI may account for 25.8% of the variables of perceived possibility. Besides, a patient’s number of hypertension categories, BMI overweight, and perceived poor or very poor health may account for 18.1% of the variables of perceived severity.
Since domestic studies concerning the perceived risks of hypertension complications is scarce and measurement tools to discover the comprehensive aspects of perceived risks are even rare, this study wishes to serve as a reference for relevant studies concerning the perceived risks of chronicle diseases and for health care givers to develop the capability of caring for patients with hypertension. Therefore, it is suggested that future on job trainings and school education equip health care givers with better understanding of the possibility and severity of hypertension complications in terms of psychological, financial performance, and social aspects. As for hospitals and communities, it is advised to provide hypertension patients’ families with health care materials regarding the severity of relevant complications and its effect on the patients in terms of financial, psychological, and social aspects so that patients may receive better care and have greater perceived and severity. The competent authority is suggested to educate the general public on the complications of hypertension by utilizing different media such as hospitals, clinics, television, newspapers, and the Internet to increase their perceived risks and to lower the occurrence of complications of hypertension.
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