Cardiovascular disease risk factors and socioeconomic variables in a nation undergoing epidemiologic transition

Abstract

BackgroundCardiovascular disease (CVD) related deaths is not only the prime cause of mortality in the world, it has also continued to increase in the low and middle income countries. Hence, this study examines the relationship between CVD risk factors and socioeconomic variables in Malaysia, which is a rapidly growing middle income nation undergoing epidemiologic transition.MethodsUsing data from 11,959 adults aged 30 years and above, and living in urban and rural areas between 2007 and 2010, this study attempts to examine the prevalence of CVD risk factors, and the association between these factors, and socioeconomic and demographic variables in Malaysia. The socioeconomic and demographic, and anthropometric data was obtained with blood pressure and fasting venous blood for glucose and lipids through a community-based survey.ResultsThe association between CVD risk factors, and education and income was mixed. There was a negative association between smoking and hypertension, and education and income. The association between diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and being overweight with education and income was not clear. More men than women smoked in all education and income groups. The remaining consistent results show that the relationship between smoking, and education and income was obvious and inverse among Malays, others, rural women, Western Peninsular Malaysia (WPM) and Eastern Peninsular Malaysia (EPM). Urban men showed higher prevalence of being overweight than rural men in all education and income categories. Except for those with no education more rural men smoked than urban men. Also, Malay men in all education and income categories showed the highest prevalence of smoking among the ethnic groups.ConclusionsThe association between CVD risk factors and socioeconomic variables should be considered when formulating programmes to reduce morbidity and mortality rates in low and middle income countries. While general awareness programmes should be targeted at all, specific ones should be focused on vulnerable groups, such as, men and rural inhabitants for smoking, Malays for hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, and Indians and Malays, and respondents from EPM for diabetes.

Prevalence and determinants of cardiovascular disease risk factors among the residents of urban community housing projects in Malaysia

“…While a few contrasts were revealed, our study was generally in line with the literature. The prevalence of hypertension was increasing with age [ 15 , 33 ]. A previous study showed that in Malaysia, the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia was directly related to ageing, and this tallied with our findings as well [ 46 ]; however, our findings contradicted with a previous finding in which a greater proportion of females suffered from hypercholesterolemia[ 15 ].…”

“…Chronic illnesses in Malaysia are due to both demographic and socioeconomic transitions caused by economic development [ 10 ] which will result in higher prevalence of NCDs in Malaysia [ 11 ]. Mortality due to CVDs in Malaysian hospitals has risen dramatically from 15.7% in 1996 to 25.4% in 2006 [ 12 , 13 ] and is expected to increase in the subsequent decades [ 14 , 15 ].…”

“…First, it is an unprecedented research in studying the PPR residents in Malaysian's metropolitan areas. Second, this study not only covers as many CVD risk factors as the previous nation-wide studies have done [ 12 - 15 ], but in fact it has more risk factors compared to them [ 32 - 35 ]. Finally, this study is the baseline for a-five-year longitudinal research and the findings from this study will be applied to establish tailor-made interventions for vulnerable lower socioeconomic population in metropolitan areas.…”

Socioeconomic status and hypertension

“…The search strategy for the 1860 unique references is presented in Fig. Of these, 34 articles [3,6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][31][32][33][34][36][37][38]40,45,[49][50][51]53,54] reported by raw data, and 13 articles [29,30,35,39,[41][42][43][44][46][47][48]52,55] reported by ORs only. Briefly, 1689 articles did not address the issue of interest and were excluded after screening the abstracts, leaving us with 171 full-text articles for further examination.…”

Prevalence of Cardiac Risk Factors among People Attending an Exhibition

“…The present study finding is supported by Rajah Rasiah et.al., in Malaysia (2013) who conducted a study on 11,959 adults aged 30 yrs and above living in urban and rural areas to examine the prevalence of CVD risk factors, the association between these factors and the demographic variables .The results showed an association between CVD risk factors and education and income was mixed .There was a negative association between smoking and hypertension and education and income .Regarding the association between diabetes , hypertension ,high blood cholesterol levels and being overweight, urban men showed higher prevalence of being overweight than rural men [12] .…”