Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a large, contemporary cohort of adults in Republic of Kazakhstan
Authors: Mukhtarkhanova D , Junusbekova G , Tundybayeva M , Leonovich T , Baglanova L 
Published: May 2022

Abstract

Funding Acknowledgements
Type of funding sources: None.

Introduction
Risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, such as smoking, obesity, abdominal obesity, sedentary lifestyle, poor vegetable diet and stress are modifiable. Despite the ability to modify the lifestyle the prevalence of these risk factors remains high. Cardiovascular risk factors, including modifiable and non-modifiable, are the cause of cardiovascular diseases: arterial hypertension, ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction and stroke, which leads to high levels of mortality and morbidity. Increasing of awareness about risk factors and necessity to change the lifestyle would reduce the mortality levels.

Purpose
To assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in a large, contemporary cohort of adults.

Methods
A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2021 to November 2021 in four regions of Kazakhstan. There was a sample of 1374 adults of both sexes (838 women (61%) and 536 men (39%)) of mean age - 39±10 years. Special questionnaire, including cardiovascular risk factors assessment, blood pressure and heart rate measurement were performed. Statistical test was performed by the StatTech, Russia.

Results
There was a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of smoking among women and men: among men – 212 (39.6%) smoke, 93 (17.4%) - once smoked, but stopped, 231 (43.1%) - never smoked, among women 560 (66.8%) - never smoked, 161 (19.2%) - smoked but stopped, 117 (14%) - smoke (p &lt;0.001).
With regard to alcohol consumption: the majority of women – 641 (76.5%) do not drink alcohol, 180 (21.5%) - about 1-3 times a month, while, among men, 274 (51.1%) and 206 (38.4%) use very rarely and about 1-3 once a month, 55 (10.3%) use it more often than once a week (p &lt;0.001).
The prevalence among women of using of hormonal contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy is low – 55 (6.6%) and 20 (2.4%), respectively (p &lt;0.001). It should also be noted that among all surveyed women, 51 (6.1%) had increased blood pressure during at least one pregnancy (p &lt;0.001).
Both men and women showed good adherence to regular physical activity (including daily walking), however, men are more likely to go in for sports on a regular basis (342 (63.8%) versus 379 (45.2%), p &lt;0.001).
There was no statistically significant difference between the stress levels in men and women (p = 0.077), the majority assess their stress level as average (545 (65%) women and 319 (59.5%) men).
With an increase in age by 1, an increase in body mass index by 0.149 should be expected (p&lt;0.001).

Conclusion
Many respondents do not perceive their cardiovascular risk. The prevalence of modifiable risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, hormonal therapy, sedentary lifestyle, stress and obesity remains high among women and men. A sedentary lifestyle as a cardiovascular risk factor is less pronounced compared to other factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity).