ATTENDANCE AND FOLLOW-UP CONDITIONS OF CARE AT HYPERTENSIVE FOLLOW-UP CLINICS AMONG ADULT HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS DURING covid-19 AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS, IN WEST ARSI PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES, OROMIYA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus. Besides of its morbidity and mortality effect, it results in majority of hypertensive patients left untreated and exposed to uncontrolled hypertension.There were no synthesized evidence which shows follow-up conditions of care in West Arsi zone. Therfore, we aim to assess attendance and follow-up conditions of care among hypertensive patients. Objective: To assess attendance and follow-up conditions of care at hypertensive follow-up clinics among adult hypertensive patients during COVID-19 and its associated factors, at West Arsi public health facilities from July1to 30, 2021 Methods:A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 adult hypertensive patients in the West Arsi zone from July1to 30, 2021. Pretested and structured interviewer-administered questionnaire Adopted from different literature was used to collect data. Data was entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. The collected data was cleaned and coded before analysis. Binary logistics regression was used and those variables with P-value <0.25 in the binary analysis were considered and transferred to multi-variable logistic regression. A value of P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Among 409 participants 29.1%(95% CI: 24.9%, 33.4%) of them had poor attendance and follow-up conditions of care during COVID-19.Age⩾ 60 years(AOR=3.55, 95% CI: 2.09, 6.03),transportation problem(AOR=2.43, 95% CI:1.28,4.61),fear of COVID-19(AOR=3.34, 95% CI:1.59,7.01), comorbidity(AOR=1.93, 95% CI:1.14,3.26) and physical distancing(AOR=2.43, 95% CI:1.44,4.12) were significantly associated to poor attendance and follow-up conditions of care. Conclusion and Recommendation:The prevalence of poor attendance and follow-up conditions of care was 29.1%. Age, fear of COVID-19, transportation problem, comorbidity and physical distancing were significantly associated with poor attendance and follow-up condition of care. Joint effort should be needed to improve patients attendance and follow-up conditions of care.