Author(s)

Juan Moreira^1,2, Patricia Ortiz^2,3,4*, Roberto Sempertegui², Mariella Anselmi¹, Karen Pesse⁴, Edison Jaramillo², Oscar Betancourt², Gianni Tognoni⁵

¹Centro de Epidemiología Comunitaria y Medicina Tropical, Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
²Fundación Salud, Ambiente y Desarrollo, Quito, Ecuador.
³Departamento de Pediatria, Obstetrícia i Ginecologia i Medicina Preventiva, Doctorante en Metodología de la Investigación Biomédicay Salud Pública, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, España.
⁴Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Facultad de Medicina, Quito, Ecuador.
⁵Fondazione Mario Negri Sud, Sta Maria Imbaro, Italy.

Background and Objective: A systematic review of the epidemiology of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, obesity and smoking in three Latin American countries was carried out. Reliability and local representativeness of this information is fundamental for tailoring non-communicable disease control strategies to the context. Materials and Methods: Electronic databases and gray literature were searched for descriptive and cross-sectional population studies reporting prevalence of the above-mentioned risk factors in populations aged over 18 years in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, published between January 2000 and December 2017. Results: 29 articles, which together included a population of 38,271 individuals, were incorporated in the synthesis. A pooled prevalence was obtained for each risk factor: smoking in men 37.60% [31.56 - 43.63] was the most frequent risk factor, followed by hypercholesterolemia 26.45% [18.89 - 34.02] and obesity in women 25.53% [19.78 - 31.29]. The Global prevalence of hypertension was 19.54% [15.34 - 23.74], similar for men and women (23.11; 23.26 respectively). Conclusions: Estimated pooled prevalence for the main cardiovascular risk factors is high and similar to the ones reported by international estimates, especially for hypertension and obesity. Estimated prevalence of diabetes was lowerthan the previously reported whereas for smoking it was higher. Although prevalence can be a useful indicator for monitoring the epidemiological situation of NCCD in a country, other indicators, especially those allowing visualizing the results of interventions at local level are needed.

Cardiovascular, Hypertension, Risk Factors

Moreira, J. , Ortiz, P. , Sempertegui, R. , Anselmi, M. , Pesse, K. , Jaramillo, E. , Betancourt, O. and Tognoni, G. (2019) Prevalence of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Three Andean Countries: Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis 2000-2017. World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases, 9, 718-736. doi: 10.4236/wjcd.2019.910065.