Study of risk factors causing coronary heart disease among army personnel of the rank non-commissioned officers and below in the age group of 20-50 years and its association with prehypertension

Abstract

increase in India, possibly due to the changing lifestyle, and is causing grave concern. CHD will be the most important cause of mortality in India by the year 2015 as per futuristic predictions. [1] CHD causes more deaths annually than any other disease in the world. For CHD and stroke, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and harmful use of alcohol are the leading behavioral risk factors. For about 80% of CHD and cerebrovascular disease, behavioral risk factors are mainly the culprit for causation. [2] Hypertension is a huge public health problem because it is frequent and an important contributor) to the epidemic of CHD, together with other risk factors including cholesterol, Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is an acute public health problem both in developed and in developing countries, like India. Assessing the prevalence of CHD in the community is equivalent to assessing the tip of the iceberg. Hypertension is a major risk factor for CHD and hypertension disease prevalence tip of the iceberg in the community is much more obscure. Objective: The objective of the study was to carry out a cross-sectional study among serving Army personnel, comprising healthy non-commissioned officers and other rank personnel to successfully assess the risk factors for CHD and their association with prehypertension. Materials and Methods: Screening of risk factors for CHD among 200 randomly selected participants was carried out. Blood pressure, height, weight, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL), random blood sugar levels, and smoking status were the major risk factors screened. Results: Nearly 63% of Army personnel were found to be having blood pressure commensurate to the range of prehypertension. About 15% were detected to be overweight, 22% had hypercholesterolemia, 5.4% had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 19.2% were current smokers. Higher age, body mass index, high serum triglycerides, low serum HDL, and IGT were found to be independently associated with increased prevalence of prehypertension in multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Our findings recommend the constant monitoring of CHD risk factors and the formulation of effective preventive strategies for adequate control of alarming incidence.