Prevalence of cardiovascular health risk behaviors in a remote rural community of Sindhuli district, Nepal.

Raja Ram Dhungana,Barsha Hada,Ram Krishna Parajuli,Suira Joshi,Rajendra Kumar Giri,Surya Devkota,Arun Shayami,Yadav Gurung,Anup Adhikari,Mahesh Kumar Khanal

doi:10.1186/1471-2261-14-92

Abstract

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is emerging as a public health menace among low and middle income countries. It has particularly affected the poorest. However, there is paucity of information about CVD risk factors profile among Nepalese rural communities where the majority of people live in poverty. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the prevalence of cardiovascular health risk behaviors in an outback community of Nepal.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study in Tinkanya Village Development Committee (VDC), Sindhuli between January and March, 2014. Total 406 participants of age 20 to 50 years were selected randomly. Data were collected using WHO-NCD STEPwise approach questionnaires and analyzed with SPSS V.16.0 and R i386 2.15.3 software.ResultThe mean age of participants was 36.2 ± 9 years. Majority of participants (76.3%) were from lower socio-economic class, Adibasi/Janajati (63.1%), and without formal schooling (46.3%). Smoking was present in 28.6%, alcohol consumption in 47.8%, insufficient fruits and vegetables intake in 96.6%, insufficient physical activity in 48.8%; 25.6% had high waist circumference, 37.4% had overweight and obesity. Average daily salt intake per capita was 14.4 grams ±4.89 grams. Hypertension was detected in 12.3%. It had an inverse relationship with education and socio-economic status. In binary logistic regression analysis, age, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and daily salt intake were identified as significant predictors of hypertension.ConclusionPresent study showed high prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient fruit and vegetable intake, daily salt intake, overweight and obesity and hypertension among remote rural population suggesting higher risk for developing CVD in future. Nepalese rural communities, therefore, are in need of population-wide comprehensive intervention approaches for reducing CVD health risk behaviors.

Highlights

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is emerging as a public health menace among low and middle income countries
Smoking is estimated to cause nearly ten per cent of all CVD followed by physical inactivity (6%), and overweight and obesity (5%) [7]
This study presented the CVD risk factors burden among rural population in Eastern Nepal and found comparatively high prevalence of smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient fruits and vegetables consumption, salt intake, overweight and obesity, and hypertension

Summary

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is emerging as a public health menace among low and middle income countries. CVD, once regarded as diseases of affluence, is wildly spreading among low and middle income countries contributing more than three-quarters of all CVD deaths in the globe [3]. It is emerging as a major killer even in Nepal. Most cardiovascular diseases share common risk factors like tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol, diabetes, high blood pressure and raised lipid. National NCD risk factors survey 2013 detected considerably high proportions of smoking (18.5%), alcohol consumption (17.4%), insufficient fruits and vegetables consumption (98.9%) and obesity (4%) among Nepalese [10]

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