Knowledge and Attitudes of Cardiovascular Patients Toward Dietary Modifications: A Population-Based Study

Objectives The objectives of this research were to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of cardiovascular patients toward dietary modifications and to find the statistically significant relationship between their attitudes and selected sociodemographic characteristics. Material and Methods The design used for this research was a population-based cross-sectional study design. Random sampling technique was used to select 109 cardiovascular patients receiving treatment in outpatient department in a Tertiary Hospital (Kebbi Medical Centre, Kalgo), Kebbi State, Nigeria. The study was carried out within 11 months (January 2023–December 2023). The data were collected from 109 participants using a self-structured questionnaire on knowledge and attitudes toward dietary modifications. The gathered data underwent statistical analysis utilizing the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22.0. Results The result reveals that most of the participants are between the age range of 50 and 59 years (46.7%) and a small percentage of the participants were 70 years or older (11.7%). Those with average knowledge scores were the majority making 37.6% of the study sample. These were followed by those respondents with poor knowledge making 36.7% of the sample. The ones with the lowest number of respondents were the ones with good knowledge who made up 27.7% of the study sample. Therefore, H0:1 hypothesis was declined, while the H1:1 hypothesis was approved. The cardiovascular patients with positive attitudes toward dietary modifications were 86.2% of the whole study sample. Those with negative attitudes were minority in number making only 13.8% of the total study sample. Therefore, H0:1 hypothesis was turned down, while the H1:1 hypothesis was endorsed. There was no relationship between any of the respondents’ sociodemographic variables and their attitudes, P > 0.05 in each case. Hence, H0:1 hypothesis was endorsed while H1:1 hypothesis was declined. Conclusion The results revealed that most of the patients had average knowledge and positive attitudes toward dietary modifications. Moreover, the relationship between the patients’ sociodemographic characteristics was not statistically significant.