Functional Capacity and Psychosocial Correlates of Exercise in Nigerian Patients with Hypertension

Objectives: Psychosocial factors are important determinants of cardiovascular health outcomes in rehabilitation. However, the relationship between exercise performance and individual factors remained poorly understood. This study investigated the relationship between functional capacity and psychosocial correlates of exercise in Nigerian patients with hypertension. Study Design and Setting: This quasi-experimental study recruited 120 patients with hypertension (≥140/90 ≤ 179/109 mmHg) from the Cardiac Care Unit of a Nigerian university teaching using purposive sampling technique. Functional capacity was assessed using the 6-minute walk test and maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 max) was estimated. Participants also underwent a 30-minute self-paced walking exercise. Thereafter, psychosocial correlates of exercise including exercise self-efficacy (ESE), social support (SoS), perceived exercise barrier (PEB) and socio-economic status (SES) were assessed using validated questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. Alpha level was set at p < 0.05 of significance. Results: A majority of the participants demonstrated high ESE (75.0%), moderate SoS (60.9%) and low PEB (71.7%). More than half (58.4%) of the participants were in the middle SES. Male and female participants were comparable in ESE scores (p = 0.554), SoS (p = 0.362) and six-minute walk distance (6-MWD) (p = 0.194) except in body mass index (p < 0.05). The mean 6-MWD and VO2 max were 350.6 ± 54.7 m and 9.74 ± 1.5 ml/kg/min respectively. There were significant correlations between functional capacity and each of ESE (r = 0.184; p = 0.026) and SoS (r = 0.374; p = 0.021). Conclusions: Psychosocial correlates of exercise including self-efficacy and social support were significantly associated with functional capacity among Nigerian patients with mild to moderate hypertension.