High prevalence and clustering of modifiable CVD risk factors among rural adolescents in southwest Nigeria: implication for grass root prevention

Abstract

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) is an immense global problem with serious economic and social consequences. Modifiable risk factors for CVD have been identified internationally in adolescents where early intervention programs have the potential to reduce CVD risk on individual and population levels. In developing countries such as Nigeria, little is known about the prevalence of modifiable CVD risk factors among adolescents especially in the rural areas.MethodsThis paper reports on a cross-sectional survey of modifiable CVD risk factors among rural adolescents in South-West Nigeria. All 15–18 years old adolescents in all the schools at Ibarapa central local government were approached and all those who assented and consented to participate in the study were involved. A total of 1500 adolescents participated in the study. Measurements of CVD risks factors taken were; smoking, physical activity, alcohol, dietary pattern using a questionnaire developed by authors. Other CVD risk factors such as waist hip ratio and BMI were taken using standardized instruments. Data were analyzed using STATA version 12. ResultsData from 1079 adolescents (56.5 % males and 53.5 % females) were analyzed. Mean age of males was 16.4 ± 1.14 years and mean age for females was 16.29 ± 1.13 years. Adolescents showed clustering of CVD risk factors with about 72 % having between two and four risk factors. A total of 102 clustering patterns were reported. The most common clustering pattern (19.6 %) included high animal lipid and salt diet.ConclusionThere is high level and clustering of CVD risk factors among rural adolescents in Southwest Nigeria. The most common clustering pattern was biased towards dietary factors. The high prevalence of CVD risk factors among rural adolescents in Southwest Nigeria suggests that urgent primary prevention programs are required to prevent the next generation of Nigerians from suffering of CVD.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2028-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Knowledge and Risk Factors Prevalence of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in Nigeria: a case study of Adult population in Delta State

“…High prevalence of unhealthy dietary pattern reported in this study is consistent the reported pattern in previous studies [8,12,32,36]. The high prevalence of unhealthy dietary behaviors reported in this study may be partly due to the globalization of unhealthy transition and increasing transient nature of the population which have grown the trend of eating fast foods typically high in fat, sugar, salts and low in fiber (Table 3).…”

“…Alcohol abuse is a major risk factor for cancers, cardiac, gastrointestinal, hematologic, immune, neuralgic, muscular-skeletal chronic liver disease, unintentional injuries, alcohol-related violence, neuropsychiatric conditions [29][30][31]. Prevalence profile of 8.54% for harmful alcohol use was admitted in this study is fairly consistent with 10.2% reported by Odunaya et al [32]. Modest/occasional alcohol use of 80.83%, self-reported in this study calls for urgent strategies to regulate the production, marketing, advertising and availability of alcohol as moderate users of today are tomorrow abusers.…”

“…Physical inactivity prevalence of 23.96% collaborates 27.9% in a similar study in Nigeria [32], but lower than the global 31% previously submitted [33,34] and 65.5% reported by Oyeyemi et al [35]. The high physical activity self-reported in this study may be partly due to the respondent's occupational profile as two-third of the respondent's occupation (77.29%) involves sufficient vigorous activities.…”

“…Physical inactivity is one of the major risk factors for many NCDs such as hypertension, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NDDM), stroke, obesity, and Fibromyalgia [32]. Physical inactivity prevalence of 23.96% collaborates 27.9% in a similar study in Nigeria [32], but lower than the global 31% previously submitted [33,34] and 65.5% reported by Oyeyemi et al [35].…”

“…The prevalence of each risk factor varied considerably as was reported in previous studies [8,12,27,32,35].…”