Tне Opinion of Population About the Impact of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors (Epidemiological Observational Study)

Awareness of the population about risk factors and healthy lifestyles is the basis for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of population awareness about the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in a population of St. Petersburg residents in the framework of the ESSE-RF study. Methods: A random selection of 1600 participants was formed within the framework of the multicenter epidemiological observational study of the Russian-American Society of Ecclesiology. All participants completed a questionnaire that included a fi ve-point rating of the negative impact of various risk factors on health. To process the results, the following notations were adopted: the score of “5” and “4” points meant that the risk factor had a “signifi cant effect”, “3” and “2” - an insignifi cant infl uence, “1” infl uenced insignifi cantly. If the patient did not answer this question, the factor was not evaluated. In analyzing the data, all patients were divided into groups by age, sex, marital status and education. Results: More than 75% of participants named factors such as excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, stress, overweight and high blood pressure. Such risk factors as malnutrition and inadequate physical activity were considered signifi cant by about 60-65% of survey participants. The dominant position, among the risk factors, is the excessive use of alcohol at the age of 44 years. Among the participants in the study, 1027 (64.1%) women prevailed, compared to 573 (35.9%) men. Men and women have different risk factors, such as stress (p = 0.002), high blood pressure (p = 0.008), and malnutrition (p = 0.017). Of the men in the study, 77 (13.7%) participants were never married, 455 (79.6%) are currently married, 36 are divorced (6.5%) and widowers - 1 (0.2% ). The difference in risk factors for men, depending on the marital status, is observed for stress and high blood pressure. Among the women in the study, 209 (20.6%) of the participants were never married, 562 were married at the present time (54.7%), 172 (16.8%) and widows - 78 (7.9%) were divorced. Single women think more about the effect of obesity on health, and divorced women focus on inappropriate eating and drinking. Conclusion: According to St. Petersburg residents, regardless of age and gender, low physical activity and unhealthy diet receive the least value evaluation. Young participants consider excessive alcohol consumption and smoking to be the most important risk factors, in older age groups such risk factors as stress and elevated blood pressure are important. Women in general tend to consider lifestyle factors to be healthier and give them greater importance than men. The family situation and level of education were not associated with the level of awareness of risk factors.