Foundation:

cerebrovascular disease is any alteration of one or more brain areas, whether temporary or permanent, secondary to a cerebral circulation disorder of ischemic or hemorrhagic origin. For many years it has been considered one of the main causes of death worldwide. It is among the main causes of death in Ecuador.

Objective:

to describe the risk factors for cerebrovascular diseases in adult patients diagnosed with cerebrovascular diseases at the Tulcán Sur Health Center over a period of 1 year.

Methods:

a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out at the Tulcán Sur Health Center, over a period of 1 year, from September 2022 to September 2023. The universe consisted of 130 patients. The sociodemographic variables were analyzed: age and sex; clinical: presence or absence of high blood pressure, smoking, alcoholism, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation and sedentary lifestyle. The normality of the data distribution was analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Categorical variables were expressed in absolute and relative frequencies. Quantitative variables were described using the mean and standard deviation.

Results:

the mean age of the population was 61.0 ± 16.5. The male sex predominated with 70 patients (53.8 %). High blood pressure, smoking and obesity were the most common cardiovascular risk factors with 73 (56.5 %), 79 (60.7 %), 64 (49.2 %) patients respectively.

Conclusions:

high blood pressure, smoking and obesity were the most prevalent risk factors.