Abstract
Arterial hypertension is one of the main risk factors as to the development of cardiovascular and renal disease and reaches a great part of the Brazilian population. The objectives of this study are: describe the profile of hypertension people and identify their knowledge about the disease. This is a descriptive research and has started in November 2005, in a Health Unit in the city of Curitiba and it was authorized by the ethical committee of the institution involved in. It is part of the sample 46 active users enrolled on the hypertension programme aged between 18 e 65 years old. The data were collected at the users’ house by the application of a semi-structured recorded interview. The data were tabulated by an Excel table. The sample consists of 70% of women, who had an increase of arterial pressure in a 41 to 50 age range. 39% of the sample has related co-morbidity, predominating the Melitus Diabetes. The average pressure level of 47% of the population is over 110 mmHg. It was verified that 78% of the sample don’t have knowledge about hypertension. This deficit contributes as not to adhere to long term treatment and to early appearance of hypertension complications.
