Prevalence of cardiovascular disease factors among adults in a selected community of Kathmandu, Nepal

Abstract

Background:Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is emerging as a prominent health problems among low and middle income countries. It has particularly affected the poorest. However, comparatively fewer CVD risk factors studies are conducted among rural communities of Kathmandu, Nepal, where most people are in-migrating and living under epidemiological and nutritional transition. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in one of the rural communities of Kathmandu, Nepal. Method: We conducted ananalytical cross-sectional study inSitapaila Village Development Community, Kathmandu between February 2014 and February, 2015. Total 347 participants of age 18 to 70 years were selected randomly. Data were collected using WHO STEPS questionnaire for CVD risk factors and analyzed with SPSS V.16.0. Result: The mean age of respondents was 42.5±13.2 years. The majority of them were female (n= 206; 59.4%), one-third(34%) represented the upper caste, and over a quarter (29.1%) did not attend school. Cardiovascular disease risk factors includedimmediate risk factors- obesity (14.9%), hypertension (34.4%), diabetes (14.8%), and high triglyceride levels (10.8%), and intermediate risk factors- smoking (17.6 %), alcohol consumption (29.4%), insufficient fruit and vegetable intake (98%) and insufficient physical activity (21%). The average daily salt intake per capita remained high at 9.57 gm± 5.49 gm.There was a significant inverse relationship between physical activity and waist hip ratio(WHR) (r= -0.115, p<0.05), fasting blood glucose (FBS) (r= -12, p<0.05), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r= -073, p<0.05) and triglycerides (TG) (r= -0.126, p<0.05).Blood pressure level was also positively correlated with FBS, TG, cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL). Conclusion: A high prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors and strong interrelationships suggesteda high risk of cardiovascular events in the study population. The findings have implications for planning and the implementation of cardiovascular disease risk factor prevention programs in rural communities in Kathmandu.