International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

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

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Arun Gangadhar Ghorpade 1
Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava 2
Sitanshu Sekhar Kar 3
Sonali Sarkar 3
Sumanth Mallikarjuna Majgi 4
Gautam Roy 3
1 Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Pondicherry, India
2 Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, India
3 Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry, India
4 Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, Mysore, Karnataka, India
10.15171/ijhpm.2015.88
Abstract
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 >40 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 570 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 570 adults aged above 40 years. The mean age of the subjects was 54.2 (±11.1) years and 53.3% 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 32%, 53%, 56.3%, and 61.5% study participants, respectively.
 
Conclusion
Categorizing people as low (<10%)/moderate (10%-20%)/high (>20%) 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
Subjects
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  • Received Date 24 December 2014
  • Revised Date 17 April 2015
  • Accepted Date 17 April 2015
  • First Published Date 01 August 2015
  • Published Date 01 August 2015