Awareness and Pattern of Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Patients Attending Cardiac Emergency with Acute Chest Pain of Cardiac Origin in Lucknow

Background: Lack of awareness about the risk factors is an important reason for delay in seeking medical care among patients with acute chest pain of cardiac origin.

Objectives: To study the prevalence and awareness of cardiovascular risk factors and its sociodemographic determinants in patients attending cardiac emergency with acute chest pain of cardiac origin of Lucknow district.

Material and Method: A Descriptive Longitudinal study was conducted in the cardiac emergency of CSMMU, a tertiary care center, following systematic random sampling technique on a sample size of 220 during study period of one year August 2010 to August 2011.Data was collected through preformed and pretested schedule and analysed using SPSS 17.0 software.

Results: It was found that distribution of cardiovascular risk factors among patients attending cardiac emergency with acute chest pain of cardiac origin of Lucknow district were as follows: tobacco use 47.3%, alcohol 17.3%, hypertension 23.2%, diabetes mellitus 32.7%, dyslipidaemia 15%, overweight 23.6%, obesity 9.1%, past history of CAD 21.4% and family history in 9.5% of the patients. The awareness of risk factor was maximum for tobacco use (70%) and least for dyslipidaemia (40.9%). The awareness was less in rural patients, females, low SES class and illiterates.

Conclusions: Public awareness campaigns to be conducted periodically to educate people about signs and symptoms of acute chest pain of cardiac origin, to create awareness about the seriousness of the problem and risk factors, as these factors were the major barriers in delay in health seeking.