ABSTRACT
A cross-sectional study of a bauxite mining community was conducted between August and November, 1992, to determine the prevalence of specified cardiovascular risk factors. It was carried out by interns and staff of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Guyana. Three Hundred and eighty-five subjects out of an over-18-year-old population (4,400) were randomly selected from the electoral register. A risk profile was recorded for each subject with general data on age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and occupation. Other data collected and evaluated included family history of heart disease, daily cigarette smoking, height, hypertension (blood pressure level > 140/90 mm Hg), hypercholesteraemia (serum cholesterol > 230 mg percentage) and diabetes mellitus (fasting blood sugar > 120 mg percentage). Analysis of resultls of 242 (63 percent) cases, so far, of the 385 subjects, revealed 50.8 percent males and 49.2 percent females; 78 percent Afro-Guyanese, 12.8 percent Mixed and 7.9 percent Indo-Guyanese; 11.9 percent 65 years and over. Prevalence rates of 32.3 percent for hypertension, 14.5 percent for hypercholesteraemia, 2.9 percent for diabetes mellitus and 21.5 percent for obesity were observed, while 27.7 percent of the subjects smoked, 50.4 percent drank alcohol and 38 percent had at least one family member with heart disease. When risk factors for cardiovascular disease in hypertensive subjects were compared to those in nonhypertensive subjects were compared to those in nonhypertensives, it was found that hypercholesteraemia was 4.7 times greater and that obesity and diabetes mellitus was twice as great. This study indicates that risk factors for cardiovascular disease in a predominantly Afro-Guyanese mining community in Guyana are common and that educational and other strategies should be undertaken to reduce this risk (AU)
