The Prevalence and Awareness of Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Factors among the Lebanese Population: A Prospective Study Comparing Urban to Rural Populations

Abstract

Introduction . CVDs are largely driven by modifiable risk factors. This study sought to determine the awareness and prevalence of the modifiable CVDs risk factors among the Lebanese population. Methods . In a cross-sectional survey, 1000 participants aged ≥ 45 years were randomly selected from pharmacies and interviewed. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 21.0 software. Results . Differences between urban and rural areas include alcohol consumption (2.8% versus 1.7%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.0001</mml:mn></mml:math>), cardioprotective vegetable servings (6.1% versus 2.3%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.016</mml:mn></mml:math>), sedentary hours per day (18.6% versus 15.1%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.002</mml:mn></mml:math>), and hypertension (38.5% versus 25.4%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>). The prevalence of overweight and obesity (77.3% versus 75.2%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.468</mml:mn></mml:math>), smoking (39.3% versus 43.3%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.232</mml:mn></mml:math>), diabetes (25.4% versus 21.4%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.173</mml:mn></mml:math>), and dyslipidemia (25 versus 21.2%) was reported. Measurements revealed 19.3% of undiagnosed hypertension (12.4% versus 22.4%,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M8"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.001</mml:mn></mml:math>), 61.7% of hypertension (59.8% versus 62.6%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M9"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.203</mml:mn></mml:math>), and 7.9% of undiagnosed diabetes (6.6% versus 8.6%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M10"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.323</mml:mn></mml:math>). The declared awareness of CVDs risk factors was highest for smoking (91.5% versus 89.7%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M11"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.339</mml:mn></mml:math>) and lowest for diabetes (54.4 versus 55.7%;<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M12"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.692</mml:mn></mml:math>). Conclusion . This study has shown a high prevalence of modifiable CVDs risk factors in the Lebanese population ≥ 45 years, among which hypertension is the most prominent.