Knowledge of Cardiovascular Diseases and its Risk Factors in Letang Municipality of Eastern Nepal: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are one of the major causes of worldwide mortality including Southeast Asia. Current efforts to improve cardiovascular health in Nepal mainly focus on awareness campaigns, with limited attention to actual health literacy. This study aims to assess cardiovascular disease knowledge among adults (≥18 years) in Letang Municipality, Morang, Nepal.

Method: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study, where we recruited 281 participants from December 8 to December 19, 2019, from 4 wards of Letang municipality. A semi-structured questionnaire regarding the knowledge was administered via face face interview and anthropometric, blood pressure measurement was done to assess the risk of the participant with cardiovascular diseases. The knowledge was then assessed and compared between different age groups.

Results: The knowledge of cardiovascular disease was more in the 30–60 years of age group with adequate knowledge in 18% and fair knowledge in 36.4%. Those who are under the age group of 30 years had poor knowledge (poor knowledge in 46.9%, fair knowledge in 33%, and adequate knowledge in 10%) than that of age group 30 - 60 years. These differences were statistically significant (p= 0.022).

Conclusion: There was a lack of adequate knowledge about cardiovascular diseases among the people of the Letang municipality