Factors Associated with 10 year Risk of Myocardial Infarction and Stroke in Rural Areas of Varanasi, India

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a group ofdiseases that involves mainly Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)also known as Myocardial Infarction (MI) and Stroke. Thismay be caused by both Physiological and behavioural riskfactors. High blood pressure, hyperglycaemia, dyslepidemiaand obesity are physiological risk factors, while smoking, lackof exercise, unhealthy dietary practices and excessive alcoholconsumption are behavioural risk factors. Study objective wasto find out the risk factors associated with occurrence of 10year total risk of cardiovascular events (MI and Stroke) inrural areas of Varanasi District.Material and methods: This was a community based crosssectional study conducted in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh.All population aged 40 years and above of both genderswere included in this study. Interview schedule was used tocollect the baseline data and an anthropometric measurementand World Health Organization/ International Society ofHypertension (WHO/ISH) risk prediction chart for Indianpeople was used for risk assessment of MI and Stroke.Results: The prevalence of various risk factors amongparticipants was as obesity, 32.5% (95% CI 30.4%-34.7%);hypertension, 29.0% (95% CI 27.0%-31.1%); diabetes 6.1%(95% CI 5.1%-7.3%) and smoking, 18.3% (95% CI 16.6%-20.1%). The overall prevalence of 10 year risk of MI andStroke was found 26%. Out of these 16% (95% CI 14.0%-17.3%) and 6% (95% CI 4.9%-7.1%) respondents were inmoderate and high risk respectively. While 4% (95% CI3.5%-5.3%) respondents had very high risk of MI and Stroke.Age and sex were found significantly associated with the riskof MI and Stroke. Risk factors like hypertension (P<0.05,χ2=516.39), diabetes (P<0.05, χ2=53.74) and smoking(P<0.05, χ2=41.06), were also significantly associated withthe development of MI and Stroke.Conclusion: This study shows the positive significantassociation between several risk factors (i.e. age, gender,hypertension, diabetes and smoking) with 10 year risk fordeveloping MI and Stroke.