Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors Among Women in Köstence, Ankara

Authors: LUNA AKSOY, SERHAN KÜPELİ, ALİ BAYRAM KASIM, BARIŞ KUŞKONMAZ, UMUT KARTAL, ERPULAT ÖZİŞ, NACİ YILDIZ, NAZMİ BİLİR

Abstract: Cardiovascular disease is progressively becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women generally after menopause. In contrast to this general conception, the coronary morbidity and mortality in premenopausal Turkish women approaches that of Turkish men. In this study, our aim was to detect the prevalence of risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) among 200 women aged 30 or over who live in the Köstence area and to inform individuals presenting with CHD risk factors. Twenty-seven women (13,5%) were current smokers. The body mass index of 168 participants (84%) was greater than 24.9 kg/m2 and 32.5% of women were found to have total cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dl or above. The systolic and/or diastolic blood pressures were high in 86% of the hypertensive women and half of these women were not receiving any medication. Similarly, nearly half the diabetic women had unregulated blood glucose levels and 23.5% of them were not receiving any medication. Therefore, we would like to mention that in addition to the primary prevention and early detection of CHD, the compliance of patients with their treatment should be the focus of clinicians in order to minimize CHD morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: coronary heart disease, women

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