Prevalence of risk factors of coronary heart disease among college students in Kanchipuram town

BACKGROUND: Chronic non-communicable diseases are assuming increasing importance among adult population in both developed and developing countries. Hence this study was conducted among college going students. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of risk factors of coronary heart disease among college students aged 18 to 22 years in Kanchipuram town METHODOLOGY:A cross sectional study was conducted among students aged 18 to 22 years at 4 arts and science colleges in and around Kanchipuram town, a total of 1173 minimum study sample was calculated. RESULTS: All most half of the college students were have risk factor of pre-hypertension (40.9%) & hypertension (8.7%), Nearly half of the college going students were have habitual of consumption of junk food (27.5%), alcohol consumption of about (14.8%), and tobacco smoking (8.4%). one quarter of them were not doing any type of physical activity (24.9%), family history of Coronary heart disease (6.8%), overweight (6.7%), high stress levels (4.4%), and abdominal obesity (3.6%). Common risk factors among males were prehypertension (49.9%), consumption of alcohol (33.4%) and physical inactivity (30.1%). The Common risk factors among females were was consumption of junk food (39.4%), prehypertension (33.7%) and physical inactivity (20.7%). CONCLUSION: Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours start at younger age group, catching in younger age group motivating and giving awareness on various risk factors may reduce the risk of people getting Coronary heart disease in future. RECOMMENDATIONS: Students should have continuous reinforcement health educated about the lifestyle diseases and its Preventive measures to Coronary artery disease.