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%; p = 0.0001), cardioprotective vegetable servings (6.1% versus 2.3%; p = 0.016), sedentary hours per day (18.6% versus 15.1%; p = 0.002), and hypertension (38.5% versus 25.4%; p = 0.001). The prevalence of overweight and obesity (77.3% versus 75.2%; p = 0.468), smoking (39.3% versus 43.3%; p = 0.232), diabetes (25.4% versus 21.4%; p = 0.173), and dyslipidemia (25 versus 21.2%) was reported. Measurements revealed 19.3% of undiagnosed hypertension (12.4% versus 22.4%, p = 0.001), 61.7% of hypertension (59.8% versus 62.6%; p = 0.203), and 7.9% of undiagnosed diabetes (6.6% versus 8.6%; p = 0.323). The declared awareness of CVDs risk factors was highest for smoking (91.5% versus 89.7%; p = 0.339) and lowest for diabetes (54.4 versus 55.7%; p = 0.692). 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.

The Community Pharmacist’s Role in Reducing Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Lebanon: A Longitudinal Study

“…The study was approved by the Ethical Committee at Lebanese International University. One thousand individuals who had been initially recruited in March 2015 for the prevalence and assessment of awareness of CVD risk factors [16] were followed-up in the current study after 1 and 2 years. In the initial study, the sample was drawn randomly from community pharmacies based on stratified cluster sampling [16].…”

“…One thousand individuals who had been initially recruited in March 2015 for the prevalence and assessment of awareness of CVD risk factors [16] were followed-up in the current study after 1 and 2 years. In the initial study, the sample was drawn randomly from community pharmacies based on stratified cluster sampling [16]. The strata were the 6 districts of Lebanon and clusters were further selected at the level of districts (urban and rural areas).…”

“…In Lebanon, where national studies suggest an alarming trend in elevated CVDs risk factors [2,16], the role of pharmacists in targeting and modifying these factors has not been studied yet. In addition, leading cardiology societies in 2012 advised the reduction of mortality due to noncommunicable diseases by 25% by the year 2025 [17].…”

Cardiovascular Diseases’ Awareness Among Women in Northern Jordan

“…Modifiable CVD risk factors include hypertension, tobacco use, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, poor diet, high serum triglycerides, low High -Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, abdominal obesity, high serum blood glucose, and insulin resistance/diabetes and non-modifiable risk factors are age, gender, and ethnicity (Aminde et al, 2017;Cobiac et al, 2012;Fahs, Khalife, Malaeb, Iskandarani, & Salameh, 2017). CVDs continue to rise mainly because preventive measures are inadequate, and rates of modifiable risk factors are increasing at unprecedented levels (Aminde et al, 2017;Fahs et al, 2017). It is widely accepted that a substantial proportion of CVD burden is preventable through reduction of modifiable risk factors.…”

“…It is widely accepted that a substantial proportion of CVD burden is preventable through reduction of modifiable risk factors. Between 36% and 63% of myocardial infarctions and 20% and 31% of strokes could be prevented (Fahs et al, 2017).…”