A community-based study was done on 5923 rural Bangladeshi children aged 5-15 years to determine the prevalence of rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The prevalence was found to be 1.2 (95% confidence interval 0.3-2.1) per 1000 for RF defined by revised Jones criteria and 1.3 (0.4-2.2) per 1000 for Doppler echocardiography-confirmed RHD.
The prevalence of high hypercholesterolemia is low, whereas there is a high prevalence of borderline high cholesterol and diabetes in the adult population of Bangladesh. This warrants population-based interventions to tackle this problem.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is rapidly emerging as an important cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries.
1Epidemiologic studies done in various populations have identified major risk factors for CVD, which include both biochemical and non-biochemical factors such as inappropriate diet and physical activity leading to high body mass index (BMI), raised blood pressure, tobacco use, unfavorable blood lipid, and impaired glucose tolerance. One report suggested that more than 75 % of CVD in population could be explained by the prevalence of these established risk factors.2 Strategies for preventing premature CVD include measures to control its major risk factors. Measurement of biochemical factors is not always feasible in developing countries due to budget constrains and lack of CVD epidemiologic research. However, measurement of established non-biochemical risk factors such as blood pressure, BMI, and smoking can be done in a standardized but less expensive way. Surveillance of these non-biochemical risk factors is important as these risk factors may explain a large part of CVD in developing countries 3 in
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