heartdiseasefacts.com
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March 14, 2024
3 minute read
Important points:
- The prevalence of heart disease risk factors in people living in extreme poverty ranged from 1.4% to 17.5%.
- This prevalence is greater than previously thought and may be due to increased intake of unhealthy foods.
An analysis of people in 78 countries found that people living in extreme poverty have higher prevalence of heart disease risk factors than previously thought, including hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and dyslipidemia. It was higher than what was expected.
There is a perception that people living in extreme poverty (income less than $1.90 per day) as defined by the World Bank are less likely to have risk factors for heart disease. That’s because “historically, in low-income or middle-income countries, poor people have had less access” to eating unhealthy diets that are high in calories and getting more exercise for work and travel. , wealthier people are becoming more sedentary and eating a diet higher in calories. ” Justin Davis, MD, MRCP, MBChB, BMSc, BSc, DipABRSM, Professor of Global Health Research, University of Birmingham, UK; Distinguished Professor, Center for International Surgery, School of Global Health, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa; Professor of Public Health, Medical Research Council/Wits University, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; The Faculty of Health Sciences’ Health and Health Transitions Research Unit told Helio. “However, while this view persists among many health care providers, policy makers, and researchers, the reality is that the situation of poor people is changing rapidly, and they are now more physically active than ever before. “We expect that by eating more unhealthy foods, we have more CVD risk factors.” There’s also the idea that over generations, people who traditionally ate few calories develop a tendency to “hold on” when calories are available. This means that poor people may be genetically predisposed to being overweight/obese and subsequently developing risk factors for CVD. ”
Davis et al. pooled individual-level data from 105 nationally representative household surveys with 3,269,557 participants in 78 countries, of whom 792,228 lived in extreme poverty, the largest number of people worldwide. This represents 85% of people living in extreme poverty. Result is, nature human behavior.
Justin Davis
“We used data from countries where national surveys were being conducted to collect this information, which is difficult and expensive to conduct and is therefore not done very often. There was enough research recently done to do an analysis, “Well,” Davis told Helio. “Measuring poverty levels has the additional problem that in many countries people do not earn a certain amount of money. This is especially true for poor people who often work in the informal sector or on their own land. ” Nevertheless, the way the survey questions were asked allowed us to develop a comparable method of assessing poverty in all countries. ”
According to researchers, the prevalence of the following CVD risk factors in people living in extreme poverty is:
- hypertension, 17.5% (95% CI, 16.7-18.3);
- diabetes, 4% (95% CI, 3.6-4.5);
- Smoking, 10.6% (95% CI, 9-12.3);
- obesity, 3.1% (95% CI, 2.8-3.3);and
- Dyslipidemia 1.4% (95% CI, 0.9-1.9).
Most participants who lived in extreme poverty and had CVD risk factors did not receive treatment, the researchers wrote. For example, only 15.2% (95% CI, 13.3-17.1) of people with hypertension were taking medication for hypertension.
“We should not ignore the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors among poor people in low- and middle-income countries,” Davis told Healio. “While we have shown that this is an important issue, the traditional belief that poor people are immune to these diseases persists, and medical care to prevent or manage these diseases persists. There is no investment in the system. With these rising levels of cardiovascular risk factors and the lack of preventive measures, many poor people suffer from cardiovascular disease and are unable to work or support their families. This can be a huge personal and financial problem.”
Davis said the medical community should “invest more in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease prevention and management services in low- and middle-income countries.”
For more information:
Justin Davis, MD, MRCP, MBChB, BMSc, BSc, DipABRSM, Please contact j.davies.6@bham.ac.uk. X (Twitter): @drjackoids.
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