Prevalence and characterization of cardiovascular risk in a rural population

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. Its presentation depends on risk factors, which can be evaluated using cardiovascular risk scores and according to its risk establish preventive strategies. However, these strategies have been mainly addressed to urban areas, where the burden of disease has been studied, and not so much to rural areas of Colombia. Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of a rural population that attends a rural cardiovascular risk program. Method: It was performed a cross-sectional study in 540 participants in a primary-level cardiovascular risk program. Sociodemographic, clinical, and biochemical data were collected. Cardiovascular risk was estimated using the Framingham score. Results: High blood pressure was the highest risk factor in prevalence among the participants (95.5%), of whom 70% had adequate blood pressure values. Overweight/obesity was the second more prevalent risk factor, with a higher proportion in women respect to men (56.4 vs. 70.7%, p = 0.001). Smoking had a low prevalence (0.09%), as well as target organ dysfunction (men 8% vs. women 2.2%, p = 0.001). The 75% of the population (n = 409) was classified in low risk, according to the Framingham score. Conclusions: In this population hypertension, overweight/obesity and the coexistence of type 2 diabetes mellitus had similar prevalence respect to other rural and urban populations. The lower cardiovascular risk stratum grouped most of the participants and smoking had a very low prevalence.