Assessment of cardiovascular disease risk in adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15511/tahd.18.00112Keywords:
Cardiovascular diseases, adults, risk assessmentAbstract
Objective: The aim of our study is to evaluate the results of cardiovascular risk assessment according to the Systematic Coronary Risk Estimation (SCORE) system in adults.
Methods: This study was performed as a descriptive, cross-sectional study at Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, between November 2016 and May 2017. 155 volunteers aged 40-70 years were included in the study who applied to the outpatient clinic of family medicine in Farabi Hospital. A sociodemographic and medical information questionnaire was administered with a face-to-face interview. Participants’ blood pressures were measured. In addition, glucose and cholesterol values were recorded. In all these data, the cardiovascular disease risks of the individuals were assessed using the SCORE risk assessment system.
Results: The average age of participants was 50.3±7.5 years. Of these, 20.6% (n = 32) were male and 79.4% (n = 123) were female. In terms of cardiovascular risk levels, 17.4% (n = 27) of the participants had low risk, 47.7% (n = 74) medium risk, 24.5% (n = 38) high risk, where as 10.3% (n = 16) were at very high risk. There was no statistically significant difference between the levels of cardiovascular risk scores according to sex (p>0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between participants’ educational status, working status, place of residence, family history of premature cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular risk levels and scores (p>0.05).
Conclusion: In our study, we found that about half of the participants had moderate risk, and one third had a high or very high risk in terms of cardiovascular disease. These findings demonstrate that cardiovascular disease is an important health problem and a comprehensive risk assessment at the individual level is needed to prevent it. It will be rational to identify risks and take appropriate measures with periodic health screenings using risk prediction systems such as SCORE to prevent these diseases.
