Understanding The Comorbidities That Increase the Cardiovascular Risk in The Gynecologic Population of Our Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM2), high blood pressure (HBP) and dyslipidemia are widely recognized factors of increased cardiovascular risk. Objective: The primary objective of our study was to determine the prevalence of obesity, DM2, HBP and dyslipidemia in our hospital population The secondary objective was to compare the above-mentioned risk factors between premenopausal (preM) and postmenopausal (postM) populations. Materials And Methods: A descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was conducted in 1,143 women aged 25 to 65 years domiciled in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA, for its acronym in Spanish), who participated in the "Campaign for the prevention of cervical cancer and early detection of breast cancer” carried out in 2020 by the Gynecology Service of Hospital de Clínicas "José de San Martín", University of Buenos Aires (UBA). A survey was conducted to collect epidemiological data from patients. Blood pressure, weight and height measurements were performed in addition to the gynecological examination. The prevalence of different risk factors was estimated and compared according to the reproductive status using Fisher´s test. Results: The body mass index (BMI) of 1138 patients out of a total population of 1143 patients was obtained. The average BMI was 28.66 Kg/m2; 37.17% of the patients had obesity (35.13% in premenopausal women [preM] versus 40.73% in postmenopausal women [postM]). Among a total of 1128 patients, the prevalence of DM2 was 4.08% (2.23% in preM versus 7.26% in postM). Among 1130 patients, 12.48% had HBP (5.87% in preM versus 23.85% in postM) and among 1131 women,2.47% reported dyslipidemia (1.26% in preM versus 4.57% in postM). When comparing the populations according to the menopausal status, a significant increase was found in the prevalence of obesity (p 0.03), DM2 (p <0.001), HBP (p <0.001) and dyslipidemia (p <0.001) in postmenopausal women. Conclusions: We observed lower prevalence rates ofDM2 and HBP than in the general population. This may be attributed to the fact that the information was self-reported by patients and not confirmed by clinical examinations. However, we are surprised at the high prevalence of obesity in our population. All cardiovascular risk factors were statistically more prevalent in postmenopausal than in premenopausal women.