Abstract

MIRANDA GUERRA, Amauri de Jesús  and  HERNANDEZ VERGEL, Lázaro Luis. Presence of coronary risk factors in a locality of Belize. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2006, vol.22, n.2, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3038.

A comparative and analytical case-control study was conducted in Hattieville village in Belize , Central America , from September 2003 to April 2004. The study included 82 patients suffering from heart disease and 246 controls from the same community but without heart disease. The methods used were interview and documentary observation, and the studied variables were age, sex, risk factors, and number of risk factors. In the analysis and processing of information a database and a SPSS statistical package were used. Average, and percentage were relative frequencies used as summary measures, and the statistical analysis was made by using independence X 2 test and odds ratio. The risk factors identified in the study group were previous family pathological history, high blood pressure, and obesity with 74.39 %, 64.63 %, and 57.31 %, respectively. In the control group, the risk factors were diabetes mellitus, previous family pathological history, and obesity with 44.71 %, 33.33 %, and 31.70 %. It was possible to identify in the study group the presence of three risk factors in 42 patients for 51.21 %, and four or more in 34.15%. It was concluded that high blood pressure, smoking, sedentarism, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and previous family pathological history are significant risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases among the inhabitants of Hattieville, and that time and intensity of the exposure to the risk factor favoured the development of the disease.

Keywords : Obesity; risk factor; myocardial ischemia; hypercholesterolemia; hypertension.

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