A Study on the Association of Age, Gender and ACE I/D Polymorphism with Cardiovascular Risk Factors (CRFs) among Urban Population of Chandigarh, India

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are multifactorial and predisposed by several risk factors. CVDs prevalence is attributed to cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, ageing, gender and genetics. The specificity of CRFs to the habitat and lifestyle modification has differential CVDs outcomes. In the present cross-sectional study, we aimed at finding the prevalence of CRFs in an urban population. We also assessed the role of ACE I/D polymorphism, age and gender in CRFs susceptibility. Forty-four adult subjects, permanent residents of Chandigarh, India, were recruited in the present study. Anthropometric, physiological and demographic data were collected and analyzed. More than half of the subjects were having obesity and high blood pressure. Hyperglycemia was present in 43.9% of the subjects. Among ACE I/D genotypes, DD (45.5%) was followed by II (31.8%) and ID (22.7%), with a significant deviation from Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium. The high trends of CRFs depict that cardiovascular disease risk is very high in the present population of Chandigarh, India. The age might be one factor for this surge as subjects >45 years displayed enhancement in combined CRFs. Urbanization might be another possible reason for CRFs surge. Gender and ACE I/D polymorphism was not associated with CRFs in the present study. Though their trend exhibited a possible association, the ACE DD genotype has the lowest frequency among combined CRFs and females have a high frequency of CRFs. The most critical point of this study is the alarming/exponential increase in CRFs in Chandigarh. A study with bigger sample size is warranted regarding CRFs to identify the reasons for their surge in Chandigarh, India.