Prevalence Of Cardiac Diseases, Their Associated Risk Factors And Complications In Adults

Abstract

It is estimated that cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most common causes of death globally, and it is mostly seen in low- and middle-income countries like Pakistan. Our study focuses on to assess the prevalence of cardiac diseases among adults in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to explore associated risk factors, complications, and level of awareness. For these purposes, we held a descriptive cross-sectional study among adults aged 30 years and above. Our study population was 151 participants using a structured questionnaire, for data analysis we used SPSS and Microsoft Excel through descriptive statistics. Our study findings reveal that most of the respondents were between 40 and 60 years old (54.3%), male (61.6%), it’s also showed that more than half of participants (56.3%) had  no formal or only primary education. Most of the patients were complaint about hypertension, affecting 49.7% of the sample, while 96% reported some form of heart-related illness. Taking permanent medication rate was high, with 87.4% using prescribed drugs. Behavioral and lifestyle-related risk factors was physical inactivity (54.3%) and commonly fast-food consumption (49.7%). Moreover, smoking rate was 21.2% of total respondents, while alcohol use was only (1.3%) of study population. Study results suggest that there was 53.6% of the respondents has positive family history of cardiac diseases. Most common complication was chest pain (37.1%) and fatigue (22.5%), nearly half of participants were hospitalized with heart-related issue. Findings reveals that 59.6% of respondents were aware of heart disease, 83.4% show their interest to participate in awareness programs.

The study findings indicate a high burden of cardiac disease in this population, which is strongly linked to both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Despite low awareness levels, and the interest of respondents to engage in health education highlight the prompt need for targeted prevention measures and timely intervention programs in the region.