STROKE PREVENTION PRACTICE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS IN BUNO BEDELE ZONE PUBLIC HOSPITALS, SOUTH WEST ETHIOPIA, 2024

Background:Stroke is “rapidly developing clinical signs of focal and global disturbance of cerebral function lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death with no apparent cause than that of vascular origin. In 2019, there are over 12.2 million new strokes and 101 million prevalent strokes every year globally. Despite rapidly increasing stroke incidence and prevalence, the prevention practice of stroke was inadequate in many countries around globe. Objectives: To assess stroke prevention practices and associated factors among hypertensive Patients attending in public hospitals, Buno Bedele zone, Oromia region, southwest Ethiopia, 2024. Method: A Hospital based cross-sectional study design was conducted from June 15 to July15, 2024 among a randomly selected sample of 414 hypertensive patients on follow-up. Data were collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Data were coded, cleaned, edited and entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and were exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, proportions, and numerical summary measures were used to describe the data. Variables with P value less than 0.25 were candidate for multivariable logistic regression. Model fitness was checked by Hosmier-Leimshow test. Multicollinearity, were checked by VIF. P-value < 0.05 were considered to declared a result as statistically significant. The odds ratio with its 95% CI was reported to measure the association between the dependent and independent variables. Results: Among 406 respondents,188(46.3%) 95% (CI = 41, 51)) of study participants had good stroke prevention practices. Age < 65 years old [AOR:1.85 (95% CI (1.18,2.89)],females[AOR: 1.64 (with 95% CI (1.05,2.55) ],formal education [AOR: 1.90 (with 95% CI (1.16,3.11) ] ,urban residence [AOR: 2.15 (with 95% CI ;2(1.38,3.33) ] and Good knowledge [AOR: 3.37 (with 95% CI (2.13,5.32) ] were good stroke prevention practice. Conclusion:The magnitude of stroke prevention practice among hypertensive patients at Bedele hospital and chora hospital were 46.3%.Therefore,health education should be made to improve patients' understanding and behaviors regarding to stroke prevention.