A study on risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in an urban health center of Kolkata

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading killer accounting for 16.7 million deaths or 29.2% of the total number of global deaths in 2003. While deaths from heart attacks have declined more than 50% since the 1960s in many industrialized countries, 80% of global cardiovascular–disease-related deaths now occur in low- and middle-income nations, which cover most countries in Asia.(1) In India in the past five decades, rates of coronary disease among urban populations have risen from 4% to 11%. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 60% of the world's cardiac patients will be Indian by 2010. Nearly 50% of cardiovascular-related deaths in India occur in patients below the age of 70, compared with just 22% in the West. This trend is particularly alarming because of its potential impact on one of Asia's fastest-growing economies.(2) In India, the leading cause of death is cardiovascular disease. At the same time, it has been found that cardiovascular disease is third overall in the burden of disease, the other two being infectious and parasitic diseases and unintentional injuries. In India, deaths from coronary heart disease rose from 1.17 million in 1990 to 1.59 million in 2000 and is expected to rise to 2.03 million in 2010. The prevalence varies by site, age group studied, and diagnostic criteria used, but an urban prevalence of about 10% in adults aged ≥35 years old is a credible estimate based on several surveys.(3) With this in the backdrop, a descriptive, observational study with a cross-sectional study design was conducted to assess the prevalence of risk factors in patients > 30 years old attending the sector clinic in the Urban Health Centre, Chetla in the city of Kolkata. The health center functions under the auspices of the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata and caters to a huge slum population in the Chetla area. Residents of the urban slum attend the sector outdoors (OPD) 5 days every week (except Saturdays and Sundays) for different medical ailments. Two days of the week were randomly chosen (Wednesday and Friday) and the researchers included the patients >30 years old who attended the sector OPD during those two days in the study. The study was conducted for a period of 4 months during 2006 to 2007.