Background: Strict adherence to personal health recommendations is necessary to improve the clinical control of arterial hypertension.
Objective: To identify predictors of the behavior to avoid the "consumption of restricted foods" in a sample of hypertensive patients from Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Method: Participants were 183 patients with arterial hypertension diagnosis, who completed two self-administered questionnaires and different questions regarding adherence and self-care behaviors. A trajectory analysis was used for the interpretation of data.
Results: Less tolerance to frustration, a major affective social support and a lower body mass index were behavior predictors to avoid the consumption of restricted foods (pBS= 0.294, χ2/gl= 1.417, GFI = 0.993, AGFI = 0.965, NFI = 0.934, IFI = 0.980 y SRMR = 0.040), explaining approximately 20% of the variance in the study behavior.
Conclusion: The study of adherence and self-care behaviors demands to identify what and how some personal and interpersonal variables are influencing in their daily practice, which can contribute to improve the interdisciplinary interventions programs in clinical and communitarian settings for attending patients living with arterial hypertension.