Prevalência de fatores de risco para doenças cardiovasculares em idosos.

Abstract

Introduction: With the demographic and epidemiological transition process has occurred the growth of the elderly population and, consequently, changes in the morbidity and mortality profile, highlighting the cardiovascular diseases. There is little research on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly population of small towns yet. These studies help to identify elderly who have increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, as well as subsidizes health services to develop actions aimed at prevention. Objectives: To describe the demographic characteristics of elderly residents in the city of Água Comprida-MG; to identify the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in elderly people and compare them to sex and age of the elderly. Methodological Procedures: This is a prevalence study with observational, descriptive and transversal design. The study population consisted of 134 elderly. Data collection was performed in two steps; the first used interviews to obtain socio-demographic characteristics, risk factors prevalence and anthropometric data measurement such as weight, height, waist circumference and blood pressure measurement. In the second step, blood samples were collected for execution of laboratory tests to check the glycemic and lipid profiles of the elderly. Data analysis used simple frequency, proportion to describe the prevalence and chi-square test to comparisons (p <0.05). This study was approved by the Ethics in Human Research Committee of Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro. Results: We obtained a higher percentage of elderly aged 60├70 years (50%), female (57.5%), brown skin (46.2%) and married (58.2%). About scholarity, there was the same percentage of elderly people who have never studied (31.3%) and those that studied for 4├8 years (31.3%). The most do not work (76.9%) and, of these, 83.5% were retired and 15.5% pensioners; the individual monthly income was a minimum wage. Cardiovascular risk factors more prevalent among the elderly were increased waist circumference (77.6%), arterial hypertension (67.2%), and sedentary lifestyle (59.7%). Comparison between sexes showed that women had a higher prevalence of physical inactivity and increased waist circumference than men. On the other hand, there were a greater proportion of cases alcoholic men than women. However, among the 12 risk factors examined, older women showed a higher risk, though not statistically significant, in nine of them. Prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in the age group of 60├ 70 years compared to the others. Elderly of 80 years and older had a lower proportion of abnormal laboratory tests. Conclusion: It is observed that elderly female and aged 60├70 years are more vulnerable to developing cardiovascular diseases. The control of risk factors contributes to reduce morbidity and mortality in elderly and, thus, improve their life s quality.