Hypertension Awareness Day held on World Heart Day
A large number of staff and students turned up at the Hage Geingob campus Skills Lab Building to get their blood pressure readings during the Hypertension Awareness Day.
Hypertension is defined as when the pressure in your blood vessels is too high (140/90 mm Hg or higher). It can occur from various reasons such as genetics, a high salt diet, and being overweight amongst other issues.
Tuwilika Keendjele, a Physiology Lecturer at the campus and one of the organisers of the awareness programme stated that the idea for this outreach stemmed from the random visits that the department received from staff who wanted their blood pressure checked.
“As a Physiology Department, we do these kinds of check-ups and measurements and our colleagues were aware of this, so they would come to us and ask to get their blood pressure checked and that prompted us to have an outreach where everyone can just come get their blood pressure checked.”
She continued to say that the department’s initial plan was to have the outreach on “World Hypertension Day” in May. However, there were a few ethical regulations that had not been verified, thus they decided to have it in September around “World Heart Day” to keep resemblance of the actual theme.
Keendjele also expressed that the department aims to publish and have a profile of the campus staff and students as well as grow and branch out to the other campuses. “The data collected from here will be published on international journals,” she said.
Never taken seriously until too late
Similarly, Dr Zibusiso Mkandla, also a Physiology Lecturer and an organiser of the event stated that, “the profile will help us keep track and history of our staff and students because high-blood pressure is never taken seriously until it is too late.”
The 2-day programme included 3 stages/phases for all participants. Phase one was the signing of consent forms by participants, phase two was the main event which included measurements of variables such as BMI (Body Mass Index), weight, height, hip to waist ratio and blood pressure. The last phase included a questionnaire, filled out by participants for further data collection.
Participants: We need more of this
Tanja Palle, a 3rd year Pharmacy student, who came to get her blood pressure checked shared the following experience. “As I have hypertension, I was curious to see where my blood pressure stands. The entire process was calm and informative especially because I’ve not had my BMI checked for a while now,” she said.
She continued to explain, since she had experience with hypertension treatment and the entire process, she was very pleased to see the department branch out in the questionnaire and include variables such as lifestyle and dietary instead of focusing entirely on medication.
Another student, Eric Shilongo, said that he had never gotten his blood pressure checked so he was happy to see this initiative on campus and decided to go for it. “I have never had my blood pressure monitored so I was intrigued to find out,” he said. “It’s good to know where you stand. I even got to know about my BMI, which tells me if I am underweight or overweight, and whether I need to tone it down.”
Further lauding the initiative, Palle also expressed that it would be nice for the Physiology Department to do this more often. “I would like the Physiology Department to carry this out at least once a month because as students we undergo a lot of pressure and we tend to push it aside because there is no time to go to a hospital. Even today, my blood pressure was slightly elevated,” she said.
Keendjele advised that we take our hearts seriously. “A lot of us are tiny and we tend to feel like we are healthy because we are small but we never really check,” she said. “Be more vigilant when it comes to your heart.”
The outreach at Hage Geingob Campus included 2 doctors and 1 nurse, who were doing the measurements as well as writing referrals if need be. The process also included physiology students who aided during the last phase of the questionnaires.
Dr Mkandla stated that the department plans to branch out and have outreaches outside of the campus into the Namibian community at large, in the near future.
Original story by Suama Shingenge. Suama is a final-year media intern student at the University of Namibia.
