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. 2024 May 1;16(3):313-324.
doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihad058.

Prevalence and determinants of cardiovascular risk factors in Lesotho: a population-based survey

Lucia González Fernández  1   2   3   4 , Emmanuel Firima  1   2   3 , Ravi Gupta  5 , Mamoronts'ane Pauline Sematle  5 , Makhebe Khomolishoele  5 , Manthabiseng Molulela  5 , Matumaole Bane  5 , Raphaela Meli  4 , Mosa Tlahali  6 , Tristan Lee  1   2   3 , Frédérique Chammartin  1   3 , Felix Gerber  1   2   3 , Thabo Ishmael Lejone  1   3 , Irene Ayakaka  5 , Maja Weisser  2   3   7 , Alain Amstutz  1   3 , Niklaus Daniel Labhardt  1   3
Affiliations

Prevalence and determinants of cardiovascular risk factors in Lesotho: a population-based survey

Lucia González Fernández et al. Int Health. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: There are no recent data on the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (CVDRFs) in Lesotho. This study aims to assess the prevalence of CVDRFs and their determinants.

Methods: We conducted a household-based, cross-sectional survey among adults ≥18 y of age in 120 randomly sampled clusters in two districts.

Results: Among 6061 participants, 52.2% were female and their median age was 39 y (interquartile range 27-58). The overall prevalence of overweight, diabetes, elevated blood pressure (BP) and tobacco use was 39.9%, 5.3%, 21.6% and 24.9%, respectively. Among participants, 34.6% had none, 45.2% had one and 20.2% had two or more CVDRFs. Women were more likely to have two or more CVDRFs (20.7% vs 12.3%). Overall, 7.5% of participants had elevated total cholesterol, 52.7% had low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and 1.6% had elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Among younger participants (18-29 y), 16.1% reported tobacco use, 28.6% were overweight, 1.5% had diabetes and 3.5% had elevated BP. Household wealth positively correlated with the prevalence of elevated BP, overweight and diabetes, whereas tobacco use was higher among people in the lowest three wealth quintiles.

Conclusions: CVDRFs are highly prevalent in Lesotho across age and sex groups, underlining the importance of strengthening prevention and care programs in Lesotho and similar settings in southern Africa.

Keywords: diabetes; dyslipidaemia; hypertension; non-communicable diseases; overweight; tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study flow and participant enrolment. (a) Lesotho – subnational population statistics – UNFPA (https://data.humdata.org/dataset/cod-ps-lso). (b) None of the household members present was eligible for the survey. (c) Individuals were enumerated but not present at the time of the survey or were not eligible.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Overlapping cardiovascular risk factors in the survey population, including overweight, tobacco use, diabetes and elevated BP. Participants include all those with information available on all four risk factors (n=5396).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Prevalence of overweight, tobacco use, diabetes and elevated BP disaggregated by (a) wealth quintiles and (b) level of education attained.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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