Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in rural and urban Puriscal

Abstract

Background. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is becoming more prevalent in developing countries, particularly in the urban areas, in contrast to the CAD mortality trends observed in some industrialized nations. Methods and Results. We determined the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity, total cholesterol a240 mg/dl and a200s239 mg/dl, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol a160 mg /dl and >130 .159 mg/d1, and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol <35 mg/dl) in 222 men and 243 women from rural and urban areas of Puriscal, Costa Rica, using the American Cholesterol Education Program guidelines. Urban Puriscal men had a significantly (p <0.05) higher prevalence of borderline high-risk total cholesterol (26% versus 14%), borderline high-risk LDL cholesterol (21% versus 11%), smoking (32% versus 13%), and higher prevalence of low HDL cholesterol (34% versus 24%), hypertension (16% versus 13%), diabetes (4.5% versus 2.7%), obesity (21% versus 14%), and saturated fat intake >15% of calories (14% versus 7%) than rural men from Puriscal. No significant differences between rural and urban women were found for any of the cardiovascular risk factors. Urban Puriscal residents were also more sedentary than rural Puriscal residents. Conclusions. These data indicate that modifiable risk factors are more prevalent in urban than in rural Puriscal, Costa Rica, particularly in men.