Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Assessment of Women Attending a Religious Program in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria

The burden of cardiovascular diseases in developing countries is alarming and needs urgent attention. The study assessed the prevalence of Cardio Vascular Disease risk factor among women in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study design was a descriptive cross sectional survey conducted in Ado - Ekiti, Nigeria. Participants recruited for the study through simple random sampling were 426 women who were in a religious outreach program. Interviewer administered semi – structured questionnaires were used to collect information on respondents socio-demographic characteristics, past medical history, nutritional status (using dietary recall), and behaviors related to lifestyle. A general physical examination was done and anthropometric measurements taken from each respondent. The examinations collected data on, blood pressure, weight and height. Blood specimen (5 ml whole blood) was collected from each respondent for laboratory tests such as random blood sugar (RBS) and serum cholesterol levels. Data from the clinical examinations and laboratory tests were then used to categorize respondents as hypertensive, diabetic, obese and hyperlipidemic. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 and level of significance was set at p values < 0.5. A total of 426 respondents participated in the survey of which 64.8% were between 40 -59 years with a mean age of 51.7 ± 11.9 years. A high proportion (81.7%) of respondents had formal education. Most of the respondents (95%) claimed to be employed. About 51.4% of the respondents reported history of substance use. The most commonly consumed by respondents were “bitter kola” (31.7%) and “kolanut” (9.9%). About 5% of respondents either smoked or took substances containing nicotine e.g. “snuff “. Nearly a quarter, 23.2% of respondents claimed that they have ever used herbal (traditional) medicine (23.2%) to take care of health issues as the need arises. About 9.2% of respondents claimed that they occasionally consumed alcoholic drinks. About 49.5% of the respondents were found to have poor medical history. While majority (73.9%) of the respondents had normal blood pressure (BP), 12.0% and 14% were either pre-hypertensive or hypertensive. Majority of the respondents, 61.2%, were reported obese with a BMI exceeding 25. About 63.4% of respondents had high serum cholesterol while 2.1% reported smoking habit. There were significant cardiovascular risk factors found among women studied