The Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease in the Lagos State, Nigeria

Rk Ojikutu

doi:10.4314/gjds.v6i2.61388

Abstract

The analysis, which examines the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (ICD 9: 390-459) in Lagos State of Nigeria, was based on records obtained from the register of deaths in four Local Government Areas of the State. The result shows that there is general increase in death rates due to cardiovascular diseases over the five year period (2000- 2004). It was also discovered that the Proportional Mortality Ratio (PMR) for cardiovascular disease was elevated in men (PMR =103; 95% CI= 96 – 110) while there was deficit in female deaths (PMR=98; 95% CI = 91 – 104). The highest cardiovascular death rate was recorded among those in the 60 – 70 years age bracket. The PMR in that group is also the highest (PMR=139; 95% CI=123 – 155) among the various age groups. Data on seven occupational categories show elevated mortality with workers in private sector (PMR=135; 95% CI = 61 – 238) and Civil Servants (PMR=132; 95% CI=109 – 157) recording the highest in that order while highly significant deficit was recorded among students (PMR=76; 95% CI = 60 -95) KEY WORDS: Cardiovascular disease, Gender Differentials, Mortality Rates, Occupational Variability, Life Expectancy Ratio

Highlights

The last century has witnessed striking rise in health problems for the human species life expectancy has increased from a global average of 46 years in 1950 to 66 years in 1998.The health status and disease profile of human societies are attributable to the level of their economic development and social organization (Yusuf et al.,2001)
This seems to confirm the position of Oshuntokun (1977) that there is a male preponderance of cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria and it supports the result of the above hypothesis H01
A salient feature in Table 2 is that death due to cardiovascular diseases was significantly reduced at ages below 50 years while Proportional Mortality Ratio (PMR) for ages 50 years but less than 60 years (PMR=126; 95% confidence intervals (CI) =111 – 114), 60 years but less than 70 years (PMR=139; 95% CI =123 – 155), 70 years but less than 80 years (PMR=125; 95% CI= 109 – 142), 80 years but less than 90 years (PMR =116, 95% CI = 98 – 136) were significantly elevated

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The last century has witnessed striking rise in health problems for the human species life expectancy has increased from a global average of 46 years in 1950 to 66 years in 1998.The health status and disease profile of human societies are attributable to the level of their economic development and social organization (Yusuf et al.,2001). While explaining that these deaths are preventable, Reddy and associates (2003) posit that as an area urbanizes, the population tends to lead a sedentary lifestyle, experience high level of stress and consume unhealthy food Comparing this with the situation in the developing world, Robertson (2004) reviewed heart diseases and stroke in the United States of America and rated them as the first and the leading causes of death for both men and women in that country. Research studies suggested a minimum alcohol consumption of 21 units per week (where a unit is defined as half a pint of normal strength beer, a small glass of wine, or a single measure of spirits) They observed that regular drinking of 4 or more units a day for men is likely to result in increasing health risk and is not advisable (Vasianovich et al, 2008).

METHODOLOGY

Findings

CONCLUSION