Prevalence of the cardiovascular risk factors in a Pehuenches community, Chile

Abstract

Introduction: cardiovascular disease is an important problem in public health. The aim of this work is determining the prevalence of the cardiovascular risk factors and their association with socio-demographic, ethnical and clinical determinants in populations of Pehuenches indigenous communities in Chile.
Methods: cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a population elder 15 years old living in the Pehuenches communities of Alto Biobio in Chile, using a sample of 400 persons. For collecting information we used method and criteria of the Chile Ministry of Health and Framingham function, tabulated in an electronic form and analyzed using the statistic pack STATA 10/SE.
Results: the prevalence of the cardiovascular risk factors was: smoking 18, 2 % in men and 9,9 % in women; arterial hypertension 25,7 % in men and 17,4 % in women; hyper cholesterolemy 9,1 % in men and 8,4 % in women and diabetes mellitus 2,14 % in men and 1,41 % in women. We found significant statistic differences with higher cardiovascular risk factors prevalence in men, western population and elder age.
Conclusion: current research showed a high prevalence, being higher in male, elder people, highlighting that indigenous people is a group with lesser risk for developing cardiovascular diseases, what might change due to the westernization of the life styles.