Cardiovascular disease risk factors distribution and clustering across different geographic levels in Nepal

Authors

Umesh Ghimire, University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, Minnesot
Sabina Yasmin, Krea University, Sri City, India
Swati Chand, Rochester Regional HealthFollow
Birat Krishna Timalsena, National Academy of Medical Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepa
Tikendra Bhat, National Open College, Sanepa, Lalitpur, Nepal
Sangharsha Thapa, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kamal Ranabhat, Tribhuvan University, Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj, Nepal
Kiran Paudel, Nepal Health Frontiers, Kathmandu, Nepal
Sangam Shah, Tribhuvan University, Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj, Nepal

Department

Cardiology

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

American Journal of Human Biology

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In an effort to reduce the burgeoning problem of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), it is imperative to understand the variation of risk factors across different geographic regions. This study aims to shed light on examining the leading risk factors of CVD and it's clustering across Nepal.

METHODS: Data from a nationally representative survey were analyzed to estimate the distribution of four major risk factors (high blood pressure, overweight, obesity, and smoking) of cardiovascular diseases. Similarly, this study also assessed the intra-cluster correlation coefficients (ICCs) of CVD risk factors at the household, community (urban/rural), district, and province level.

RESULTS: This study included 14 418 adult population with age of 15 years and above of which 41.7% were male and 58.3% were female. Higher prevalence of all four CVD risk factors was found in the richest quintile, people living in hilly region, most noticeably among residents of metropolitan city and in Gandaki, Bagmati, and Province 1. The ICC decreased as the socio-geographic clustering units decreased in size from province, district, and household level clustering. The ICC was highest at province level for "province 1" for raised blood pressure than other provinces.

CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors of CVD in Nepal are concentrated prominent in highly urbanized areas and ICC is low as the level of geography decreased from province, district, and household. The findings can be applied in directing prevention activities at different levels to mitigate the higher burden of risk factors of CVD in Nepal.

First Page

e23787

DOI

10.1002/ajhb.23787

Volume

34

Issue

9

Publication Date

9-2022

Comments

Record updated with published article citation 2022-12-19 LB.

Published online ahead of print 2022-07-28.

PubMed ID

35899931

Recommended Citation

Ghimire, U., Yasmin, S., Chand, S., Timalsena, B., Bhat, T., Thapa, S., Ranabhat, K., Paudel, K., & Shah, S. (2022). Cardiovascular disease risk factors distribution and clustering across different geographic levels in Nepal. American Journal of Human Biology, 34 (9), e23787. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23787