An Association between Suppressed Anger, Demorgraphic Factors and High Blood Pressure Among Men Who Are Hypertensive in Ikeja, Lagos State

Abstract

This study examined the association between suppressed anger, demographic factors and high blood pressure among men who are hypertensive in Ikeja, Lagos State. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted with 94 male hypertensive patients at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja with their age range from 30- 65 years. A demographic information form and the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI) developed by Siegel (1985), were used in collecting data for the study. Five hypotheses were tested using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), and results are as follows results are as follows; hypothesis one (β=.947,p>.05), hypothesis two (β=-.560,p>.05), hypothesis three (β=76.7,p<.001), hypothesis four; age (β=.399, p<.001), socioeconomic status (β=.332, p<.001), monthly income (β=-.323,p<.001) and high blood pressure (β=.161,p>.05), and finally hypothesis five, (β=.457,p<.001). It was therefore recommended that, Men should learn to adapt appropriate anger coping strategies, learn to express their anger constructively so as to avoid the damaging effect of suppressed anger, the services of psychologists’ medical and mental professionals and other health workers are essential for psychological intervention so as to jointly help combat the ailment.