There was felt need for awareness campaigns and massscreening
programmes for hypertension. Awareness
regarding the risk factors should be made accessible to the
public through various means such as Information, Education
and Communication (IEC) campaigns, along with
provision of primary health services and proper referral.
The primary health care system in India has put more
emphasis on IEC and preventive activities related to infectious
diseases and family planning and only meagre
attempts have been made to prevent CVDs and their risk
factors including hypertension. However, recently, the
government of India has launched a programme for prevention
and control of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases
and stroke, and IEC is part of it.[10,35] These activities are
yet to reach the communities. Since hypertension is an
important public-health challenge worldwide; prevention,
detection, treatment, and control of this condition
should receive high priority.[36] Effective community
education programmes are vital to increase public knowledge
and awareness of hypertension and related cardiovascular
diseases. Powers et al. [34] while studying the
perceived risk emphasized the need for better patient education
on the risks associated with hypertension. Vergara
et al.[37] has pointed out that, patients' perceptions and
awareness of health-related issues specific to a particular
medical condition play an important role in the management
and outcome. The present study along with other
studies [29,34] felt the need for cardiovascular health promotion
strategies, and further emphasizes the importance
of designing culturally sensitive and congruent health
education and promotion activities.