Self-management strategies to prevent risk factors related to cardiovascular disease development at Ga-Molepo Area Clinics in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Background: Cardio Vascular Diseases(CVD) are presently the main cause of high mortality rate around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, CVDs contributes to about 13% of deaths, with 80% deaths being recorded from developing countries. Behavioural and metabolic risk factors contribute to high mortality rate related to development of CVD which self-management strategies and practices could effectively prevent. Objective: To explore and develop ―self-management strategies‖ to prevent the development of CVD among patients living with chronic conditions at Ga Molepo Area clinics in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Methods: “A mixed method exploratory sequential design study was conducted in four primary health care settings in a rural setting.‖ A semi structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with 43 patients selected by non-probability homogenous purposive sampling for a qualitative strand. Qualitative findings that was obtained with thematic ―Tesch‘s open coding data analysis method guided the quantitative strand‖. A simple random sampling was used to sample 347 respondents for the quantitative strand.Descriptive statistics and chi-square were applied to analyze data from the quantitative strand. ``Results: The qualitative results revealed that there is different self management strategies used by patients living with hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus as risk factors of CVDs. The self-management strategies include engaging in physical activity, eating a healthy balanced diet, drinking a lot of water and adhering to treatment. The quantitative revealed majority of participants(74%) perform mild exercises with 26% performing moderate exercis.On the other hand 7% are having stress and depression and while 7% are smoking.`` Conclusions:The findings indicated that by adopting self-management strategies could be an effective way of preventing the development of CVD which complicates to hypertension and diabetic mellitus .Therefore are encouraged to adhere to strategies adhere to treat,healthy diet and perform mild exercises Recommendations Hence, the government needs to appoint CHW permanently to strengthen the guidelines on the prevention of CVD and also the risk factors that put the communities at risk of developing CVD. Communities need to adhere to preventative strategies ti order prevent CVD.