Estimation of the Cardiovascular Risk Using World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) Risk Prediction Charts in a Rural Population of South India

Background World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) charts have been employed to predict the risk of cardiovascular outcome in heterogeneous settings. The aim of this research is to assess the prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factors and to estimate the cardiovascular risk among adults aged >۴۰ years, utilizing the risk charts alone, and by the addition of other parameters.   Methods A cross-sectional study was performed in two of the villages availing health services of a medical college. Overall ۵۷۰ subjects completed the assessment. The desired information was obtained using a pretested questionnaire and participants were also subjected to anthropometric measurements and laboratory investigations. The WHO/ISH risk prediction charts for the South-East Asian region was used to assess the cardiovascular risk among the study participants.   Results The study covered ۵۷۰ adults aged above ۴۰ years. The mean age of the subjects was ۵۴.۲ (±۱۱.۱) years and ۵۳.۳% subjects were women. Seventeen percent of the participants had moderate to high risk for the occurrence of cardiovascular events by using WHO/ISH risk prediction charts. In addition, CVD risk factors like smoking, alcohol, low High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were found in ۳۲%, ۵۳%, ۵۶.۳%, and ۶۱.۵% study participants, respectively.   Conclusion Categorizing people as low (<۱۰%)/moderate (۱۰%-۲۰%)/high (>۲۰%) risk is one of the crucial steps to mitigate the magnitude of cardiovascular fatal/non-fatal outcome. This cross-sectional study indicates that there is a high burden of CVD risk in the rural Pondicherry as assessed by WHO/ISH risk prediction charts. Use of WHO/ISH charts is easy and inexpensive screening tool in predicting the cardiovascular event.

Keywords:

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) , Hypertension , Smoking , Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) , South India