Nutritional status, lifestyle and knowledge of predisposing factors on hyperlipedemia among outpatients in Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), Nigeria

Abstract

The growing trend of hyperlipidemia in most developing countries has resulted largely from changes in lifestyle, diet and lack of adequate exercise which have led to decreased life expectancy and burden of cardiovascular diseases. A purposive sample size of 206 out patients was selected for this study after obtaining their due consents. Out of these, 108 (52.84%) were female and 98 (47.6%) males. Validated structured questionnaires were administered to collect basic socio-economic data from the respondents. Information obtained include drinking habits, medical history, and dietary habits. Data were presented by using descriptive statistics: frequencies and percentages. The anthropometric variables (weight and height) were analysed by using mean and standard deviation tools. Body mass index (BMI) was determined using the weight and height measurements. About 39.8% of respondents were within the age bracket (29-39 years), 25.7% had family history of diabetes mellitus, 25.2% hypertension and 11.7% had hypercholesterolemia. More than half (66.5%) of the respondents consumed alcoholic drinks. About 65.1% of the alcoholics, drink 1-3 times weekly and 46.1% took alcohol 4-6 times weekly while 14.5% drink daily. Some respondents who consumed groundnut, banana with groundnut, biscuit, buns, bread, meat pies, cakes or chicken pies with malt, juice or soft drink were 63.5%. Less than half (40.2%) of the respondents were overweight and about 37.4% of them were obese. About 45.6% of the respondents had a fair knowledge of hyperlipidemia, 40.3% had poor knowledge while 14.1% had a good knowledge. This study showed a strong evidence of poor knowledge of hyperlipidemia among out-patients attending Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUTH), which may have influenced their lifestyle, dietary habit and subsequently their nutritional/health status.

Keywords: Hyperlipidemia, nutritional status, diet, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases