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Hypertensive diseases are ranked one of the major non-communicable diseases and a public health challenge in Nigeria and globally. This has raised the need for increasing the awareness of the public about the issue because it posed great challenge especially among the work force of the nation such as the civil servants and in extension the aged civil servants. Examples of such effect include absenteeism from work; health related challenges and/or the loss of lives. On a general and global view, a healthy nation has a more productive people and tends to have a more vibrant economy when compared to others with low health status. Health problems such as hypertensive diseases are major issues militating against individuals and national development and seem to be high among developing countries such as Nigeria. Hypertension refers to having a blood pressure higher than 140 over 90 mmHg and also includes a wide range of illness and group of disorders such as heart failure, ischemic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, and left ventricular hypertrophy (excessive thickening of the heart muscle).
According to the Global Burden of Death study (2013), hypertension has resulted in 1.07 million deaths showing an increase rate from 630,000 in 1990. Its prevalence is said to vary around the world and could be said to be severe in the rural areas and also in developing economies (Ulasi, Ijoma, Onwubere, Arodiwe, Onodugo and Okafor, 2011). Developing countries such as Nigeria face an enormous burden of such chronic non-communicable diseases such as hypertensive disease (World Health Organization, 2001; and Pavlopoulos and Nihoyannopoulos, 2008). In Nigeria, hypertension prevalence ranges between 31.8% (Ogah, Madukwe, Onyeonoro, Chukwuonye, Ukaegbu, Akhimien and Okpech, 2013) and 32.8% (Ulasi, Ijoma and Onodugo, 2010). Zahida (2002) affirmed that hypertension is a major disease among pregnant women and occurs between 6-8% of all pregnancies.
According to Obinna, Patrick and lzuchukwu (2010) and Ulasi et al. (2011), hypertension is poorly controlled in Nigeria which reflects a very low personal concern. Osamor and Owumi (2011) have noted that citizens in Southwestern Nigeria have poor personal concern about hypertension. Adapting the theory of planned behavior by Ajzen (1991), important factors and variables that could help in the mitigation process of the high rate of hypertensive disease are understanding the information behavior of citizens such as their attitude towards, knowledge, and awareness of hypertension. Studies such as Abdullahi and Amzat (2011) have noted that attitude towards hypertension control is very low in Nigeria was male have very low attitude contradicting their knowledge of hypertension than the female. Also, Tesema, Disasa, Kebamo and Kadi (2016) noted that in developing countries which Nigeria could be part, the level of attitude towards hypertension is high, as many individuals embark on activities that could reduce the prevalence of hypertension. It has also been recorded that the knowledge, awareness and perception of people towards hypertensive diseases are very minimal especially in the developing countries such as Nigeria as compared to developed countries (Owolabi, Owolabi, OlaOlorun and Amole, 2014).