title: A cross-sectional survey of self-rated health and its determinants in patients with hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the study is to investigate the levels of self-rated health, blood pressure control, understand their relationships between the self-rated health and blood pressure control, and to identify the extent to which demographic, disease and psychosocial factors predict the self-rated health of hypertensive patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study adopted a cross-sectional design. Nine hundred forty-two subjects with essential hypertension were invited to join the study, 807 completed the survey. Self-report questionnaires were used to collect data. The hierarchical logistic regression was used to test the determinants of self-rated health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of all the subjects, 59.3% rated their health status as good, and 41.7% perceived their health status as poor. In terms of levels of blood pressure control, nurse-measured blood pressure showed that 40.2% of the subjects had good control levels, 59.8% for poor control levels. There were positive relationships between good self-rated health and controlled blood pressure of hypertensive patients (p<0.05). The logistic regression model showed that the determinants of subjects' self-rated health included income (OR=4.28; 95% CI=1.86-6.25), duration of hypertension diagnosis (OR=4.06; 95% CI=2.17-6.35), treatment adherence (OR=9.02; 95% CI=5.36-15.51), physical activity (OR=13.81; 95% CI=10.16-19.57) and social support (OR=8.63; 95% CI=7.17-11.35).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The self-rated health status and blood pressure control for patients with hypertension is suboptimal, effective strategies should be developed to improve patients' general health.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Guangzhou Medical University, 195 Dongfeng Rd., Guangzhou, China, 510180. Electronic address: mawinter@126.com.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Guangzhou Medical University, 195 Dongfeng Rd., Guangzhou, China, 510180. Electronic address: mayzhouwei@126.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: The first affiliated hospital of SUN YAT-SEN University, 58 Zhongshan Rd., Guangzhou, China, 510080. Electronic address: windhcf@163.com.
authors.forename: Chunfeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: The third affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 63 Duobao Rd., Guangzhou, China, 510150. Electronic address: gysyccu@126.com.
authors.forename: Shuling
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Blood pressure; Hypertension; Self-rated health