Factors influencing dietary behavior among elderly patients with hypertension in Wenzhou, China: A qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

Background:More than half of the elderly in China have high blood pressure. Dietary management is essential for maintaining ideal blood pressure levels and reducing the risk of hypertension-related complications. However, dietary management of elderly patients with hypertension in China is insufficient, and factors affecting their dietary behaviors are unclear.

Aims:To explore the factors that may affect dietary behavior among Chinese elderly patients with hypertension.

Design:This was a descriptive qualitative study.

Methods:Fifteen older adults were recruited from a hospital and community in Wenzhou, China, from January 2020 to December 2020. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, and content analysis was used for data analysis.

Results:Three main themes emerged from the data: personal cognition and perception, availability of dietary advice, and social environment. Factors influencing dietary behavior were identified at the individual, information received, and social levels. Personal cognition is the basis for formation of dietary behavior, and applicability of dietary advice and social environment affect the continuity of dietary behavior.

Conclusions:Diverse factors affected dietary behavior among Chinese elderly patients with hypertension. Diet management programs should assess patients’ cognition and perception, availability of dietary advice, and social environment.

Keywords

Diet / Eating behavior / Chinese / Aged

Ethics approval

The study followed the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2013 and was approved by the ethics committees of participating institution (Ethics approval number: 2020-zz-133). Written informed consent was obtained from all of the participants. This manuscript has the consent of the participant for the use of his/her data and for the publication of the data that appear in the article.

Funding

None.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Rong Lin: Form analysis, Writing - original draft. Ping Zou: Conceptualization, Data curation. Huiyun Luo:Validation. Yeqin Yang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Methodology.

Data availability

Data not available due to ethical restrictions.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Author Yeqin Yang is an editorial board member of Healthcare and Rehabilitation but has not been involved in the journal’s review or decisions related to this manuscript.

Acknowledgements

We would like to extend our deep gratitude to all the participants and experts.

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