Assessment of risk factors for the cardiovascular diseases in people visiting a tertiary care hospital for routine medical check-up

Background: Cardiovascular diseases have become the single leading cause of death and disease burden globally in low and middle-income countries such as India. The relatively early onset age of cardiovascular diseases in India in comparison to Western countries also implies that most productive ages of the patient's life are lost fighting the disease. Deaths associated with cardiovascular events remains constant in many countries due to new therapeutic approaches for prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. This condition is widely attributable to unhealthy outcomes in its association with risk factors such as age, obesity, dyslipidemia, smoking, low socioeconomic state and sedentary lifestyle which play a significant role in the progression of cardiovascular diseases. Methods and Results: Prospective observational study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore over 6 months. Subjects between 30-89 years of age visiting in and out-patient department of St. Philomena's Hospital, Bangalore were enrolled in the study. Subjects with diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and who were on anti-hyper lipidemic agents were excluded. 92 subjects (44 male and 48 female) were included in the study, among whom 48 (52.2%) were in the age group of 50-69 years. Abnormal total cholesterol and Low Density Lipoproteins were found more in male subjects and abnormal High Density Lipoproteins and triglycerides were found predominantly high in female subjects. Approximately 62% of study participant were obese and overweight, only 34 out of 92 participants were doing physical activity, nearly 91.3% were belonged to lower socioeconomic class and among male participants 32 of them were current smoker. The result indicated that as the age increases, the risk of CVD raises. Conclusion: Our study showed that the common risk factors among our subjects without comorbidity were age, obesity and over-weight, dyslipidemia, physical inactivity, low socioeconomic status and smoking.