Cardiovascular Risk Assessment among Patients with Hypertension Presenting at a Family Medicine Clinic in Southwest Nigeria

Aims: To determine the 10-year cardiovascular risk (CV) and its association with socio-demographic characteristics of hypertensive patients.

Study Design: This was a cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Family Medicine Clinic of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, between June 2013 and September 2013.

Methodology: We included 345 hypertensive patients (84 men, 261 women) aged 30 years and above with no clinical history suggestive of cardiovascular disease. Data collection was with an interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire, physical examination and blood investigation. CV risk was determined by using General Framingham cardiovascular risk profile for use in primary care.

Results: The mean+ SD age of the 345 respondents was 57.4+9.7 years and 75.7% were female. High proportion of the respondents (42.3%) were in the high CV risk category of 10-year risk for cardiovascular disease while 27.0% and 30.7% had intermediate and low CV risk respectively. CV risk was significantly associated with age (p < .001), sex (p < .001), family type (p= .047), level of education (p=.02), employment status (p<.001) and occupational class (p=.007). Logistic regression showed advanced age (OR=0.014, 95% CI =0.002-0.094) and male gender (OR=26.765, 95% CI = 8.802-81.383) as the predictors of high CV risk.

Conclusion: The findings show that CV risk assessment should be part of patients’ evaluation by physicians and necessary intervention should be instituted on time in order to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Nigeria.