Cardiovascular Risk Awareness, Treatment, and Control in Urban Latin America

on behalf of the CARMELA Study Investigators Effective prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases require regular screening for risk factors, high awareness of the condition, effective treatment of the identified risk factors, and adherence to the prescribed treatment. The Cardiovascular Risk Factor Multiple Evaluation in Latin America study was a cross-sectional, population-based, observational study of major cardiovascular risk factors-including hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia-in 7 Latin American cities. This report presents data on assessment, diagnosis, extent, and effectiveness of treatment, adherence to treatment, and reasons for nonadherence. Data were collected through household questionnaire-based interviews administered to 5383 men and 6167 women, 25-64 years of age, living in the following cities: Barquisimeto, Venezuela; Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Peru; Mexico City, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Santiago, Chile. Participants also completed a clinic visit for anthromorphometric and laboratory assessments. Rates of prior diagnosis of hypertension and diabetes were high (64% and 78% of affected individuals, respectively) but relatively low for hypercholesterolemia (41%). The majority of affected individuals (hypercholesterolemia 88%, diabetes 67%, and hypertension 53%) were untreated. Among individuals who were receiving pharmacologic treatment, targets for control of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia were achieved by 51%, 16%, and 52%, respectively. Adherence to treatment was observed in 69% of individuals with hypertension, 63% with diabetes, and 66% with hypercholesterolemia. Forgetfulness was the major cause of nonadherence for all 3 conditions. There is a substantial need for increasing patient education, diagnosis, treatment, adherence, and control of cardiovascular risk factors in the 7 Latin American cities. Keywords: adherence, awareness, blood pressure, cardiovascular risk factors, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, treatment control CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE (1) Although a majority of individuals knew they had hypertension or diabetes, only 41% were aware of hypercholesterolemia. (2) Forty-seven percent of hypertensive, 33% of diabetic, and 12% of hypercholesterolemic individuals were receiving pharmacological treatment, yet control of these conditions was low

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

A century of trends in adult human height

International audienc

Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015:a pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19.1 million participants

Abstract Background: Raised blood pressure is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney disease. We estimated worldwide trends in mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure, and the prevalence of, and number of people with, raised blood pressure, defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher or diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or higher. Methods: For this analysis, we pooled national, subnational, or community population-based studies that had measured blood pressure in adults aged 18 years and older. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1975 to 2015 in mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure, and the prevalence of raised blood pressure for 200 countries. We calculated the contributions of changes in prevalence versus population growth and ageing to the increase in the number of adults with raised blood pressure. Findings: We pooled 1479 studies that had measured the blood pressures of 19.1 million adults. Global age-standardised mean systolic blood pressure in 2015 was 127.0 mm Hg (95% credible interval 125.7–128.3) in men and 122.3 mm Hg (121.0–123.6) in women; age-standardised mean diastolic blood pressure was 78.7 mm Hg (77.9–79.5) for men and 76.7 mm Hg (75.9–77.6) for women. Global age-standardised prevalence of raised blood pressure was 24.1% (21.4–27.1) in men and 20.1% (17.8–22.5) in women in 2015. Mean systolic and mean diastolic blood pressure decreased substantially from 1975 to 2015 in high-income western and Asia Pacific countries, moving these countries from having some of the highest worldwide blood pressure in 1975 to the lowest in 2015. Mean blood pressure also decreased in women in central and eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and, more recently, central Asia, Middle East, and north Africa, but the estimated trends in these super-regions had larger uncertainty than in high-income super-regions. By contrast, mean blood pressure might have increased in east and southeast Asia, south Asia, Oceania, and sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, central and eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, and south Asia had the highest blood pressure levels. Prevalence of raised blood pressure decreased in high-income and some middle-income countries; it remained unchanged elsewhere. The number of adults with raised blood pressure increased from 594 million in 1975 to 1.13 billion in 2015, with the increase largely in low-income and middle-income countries. The global increase in the number of adults with raised blood pressure is a net effect of increase due to population growth and ageing, and decrease due to declining age-specific prevalence. Interpretation: During the past four decades, the highest worldwide blood pressure levels have shifted from high-income countries to low-income countries in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa due to opposite trends, while blood pressure has been persistently high in central and eastern Europe