Emerging Importance of Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors in India: a Population Based Study

Objective: The present study was carried out with the objective to determine and compare the prevalence of known risk factors of CHD in urban and rural communities of Delhi.

Methods: A community-based epidemiological study from Delhi. The study was carried out by conducting a house-to-house survey. The subjects were interviewed using a pre-coded and pre-tested semi-structured schedule after getting informed verbal consent. The various known risk factors of CHD were assessed. Subjects were enquired about family history of CHD, smoking/tobacco use, alcohol intake, physical activity and mental stress. Anthropometric parameters such as height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference of the subjects were recorded. Blood pressure, fasting blood sugar and serum cholesterol of the study subjects were also estimated.

Results: The prevalence of sedentary lifestyle, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia were observed to be significantly higher among urban subjects as compared to rural subjects. Higher prevalence has been observed for truncal obesity and family history of CHD among the urban subjects as compared to that among rural subjects. However, difference in prevalence was not statistically significant. Smoking/tobacco use, stress and heavy alcohol intake were higher among the rural subjects than that among the urban subjects but again the difference was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The present study clearly indicates that increasing prevalence of known risk factors of CHD in India is a major problem of public health importance in India. Urgent population-based measures are needed to control this trend in coronary risk factors for prevention of CHD in India.