Gehirn und Verhalten

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine some Cardiovascular Disease(CVD) risk factors in relation to cigarette smoking in 174 Roma childrenand adolescents (88 males and 86 females) and 131 non-Roma probands(males and females) aged 7-18 in central Slovakia.In this biethnic study, 26.4% of the Roma children and adolescents(more than twice contrary to the control group) were smokers. Among thestudied ethnicities, the majority of smokers was Roma (79.3%, 46subjects). Smoking Roma have higher means of TG, Lp(a) and WHR comparedwith non-smoking non-Roma. The most frequent CVD risk predictors ofsmoking Roma probands was low serum levels HDL-C, apo A (the Fisher testconfirmed a significant relationship between cigarette smoking andHDL-C, apo A; p<0.01).The results of the research should help to develop an effectivepreventative health education programs focused on Roma education (wholive in a higher-risk environment compared to the majority population)in order to stem the spread of CVD as well as morbidity and mortality inthis ethnic group living in Slovakia.