Abstract
We sought to determine the prevalence and correlates of valvular heart diseases (VHD) in the elderly population. The participants’ personal information, medical history, behavioral habits and clinical status were assessed by questionnaire, while the left ventricular dimensions, function and the presence and severity of VHD were evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography. This study analyzed the data of 3948 participants who were older than 60 years. Significant VHD was present in 1.93% of participants; the standardized prevalence of VHD among the elderly population in Hubei was 2.05% (95% CI: 1.61–2.49). The most frequent VHD was aortic regurgitation, followed by tricuspid regurgitation, mitral regurgitation and multiple valve diseases. Univariate analysis results indicated that compared with participants without VHD, those with VHD were older (p < 0.001), with a higher body mass index (BMI) (p < 0.001), were more likely to smoke (p = 0.04), and had higher rates of coronary artery disease (CAD) (p < 0.001) and arrhythmia (p < 0.001). The results of multinomial regression analysis of complex sampling indicated that combined mitral and aortic valve diseases were related to older age, male sex and smoking; CAD was associated with single left-sided VHD.
Highlights
We sought to determine the prevalence and correlates of valvular heart diseases (VHD) in the elderly population
The results indicated that male sex, smoking and older age were strongly associated with combined mitral and aortic valve diseases
Over the past several decades, a number of studies have focused on the prevalence of Valvular heart disease (VHD); this prevalence was variable among the studies
Summary
We sought to determine the prevalence and correlates of valvular heart diseases (VHD) in the elderly population. The results of multinomial regression analysis of complex sampling indicated that combined mitral and aortic valve diseases were related to older age, male sex and smoking; CAD was associated with single left-sided VHD. Population-based studies show that valvular disease is frequent in industrialized countries where the decrease in the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease has been compensated for by the increase in the prevalence of degenerative valve disease[4]. This explains the important changes in the presentation of valvular disease, which mainly affects predominantly older people. The correlates of VHD were assessed in the study population
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