Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among Adults in Orlu Local Government Area Imo State- Nigeria

ABSTRACT Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of worldwide preventable morbidity and mortality. Globally certain risk factors have been found to account for up to 90% of cardiovascular disease and a large percentage are preventable through the reduction of the modifiable risk factors. However it is reported that there are millions of people with undiagnosed cardiovascular disease risk factors who are not being managed to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease. A qualitative and quantitative descriptive research design was adopted. A sample size of 422 adults were drawn from a total population of 85,630 adults using power analysis. The 422 adults, males and females were selected through the stratified proportional sampling technique from the sixteen communities in Orlu Local Government Area and the household sampling technique was used to reach each respondent who met the inclusion criteria. Biophysical data were obtained using weight and height scales, sphygmomanometer and dry chemistry test for the fasting blood glucose and cholesterol values. A questionnaire with a reliability of 0.89 was also adopted. Data was subjected to descriptive statistics and analyzed using Chisquare and Squareman’s Rank correlation coefficient. Probability value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The prevalence of the different cardiovascular disease risk factors among the 422 respondents are as follows: alcohol intake 243 (57.6%), obesity215 (50.9 %), family history of CVD 191 (45.3%), cholesterolaemia185 (43.8%), hypertension118 (28%), diabetes mellitus 112 (26.5%), smoking101 (23.9%), physical inactivity50 (11.8%). There was a high prevalence of multiple CVD risk factors among respondents with 2 CVD risk factors being the least and 7 CVD risk factors being the most. It is recommended that health professionals should double their efforts in educating the public on these cardiovascular disease risk factors through awareness campaigns and regular screening programmes.