Time-trends in prevalence and awareness of cardiovascular risk factors in an asymptomatic North Indian urban population.

OBJECTIVE To determine temporal changes in the prevalence and level of awareness of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) in an asymptomatic North-Indian urban population. METHODS All asymptomatic office executives who underwent routine health check-up at a tertiary care centre in India during the year 2000 (n=2226) and the year 2005 (n=2684) were included in the study. Clinical evaluation including history of CVRFs, anthropometry, blood pressure measurement and biochemical investigations (fasting and postprandial blood glucose and fasting lipid profile) were performed in all the subjects. RESULTS Mean age of the subjects was 51.3 +/- 9.8 years in the year 2000 and 40.1 +/- 12.2 years in the year 2005 (p<0.001). Of all the subjects, 83.2% in the year 2000 were males compared to 76.8% in the year 2005 (p<0.001). Age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, impaired fasting glucose and metabolic syndrome was higher in the year 2005 as compared to 2000 (odds ratios--1.3, 1.82, 6.55 and 1.82 respectively; all p values <0.05). In contrast, prevalence of low HDL-cholesterol, smoking and family history of premature coronary artery disease decreased by the year 2005 (odds ratios--0.54, 0.60 and 0.67; all p-values <0.001), whereas prevalence of dyslipidemia remained same (odds ratio--0.89, p-value 0.11) during the same period. As compared to year 2000, in the year 2005 there was significant improvement in the awareness of hypertension (46.9% vs 56.7%, p value <0.001) and dyslipidemia (5.4% vs 9.6%, p value <0.001) but not of diabetes (67.0% vs 71.3%, p- NS). CONCLUSIONS The present study shows that in the office-executives belonging to urban North-Indian region, prevalence of most of CVRFs is markedly high and is increasing with time. In addition, a significant proportion of these individuals are not aware of their risk status though there has been an improvement in awareness level of hypertension and dyslipidemia over the five-year period from the year 2000 to 2005.