Cardiovascular disease risk assessment among patients attending two cardiac clinics in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

  • Waindim Nyiambam Department of Community Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
  • Augustina A. Sylverken Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
  • Isaac K. Owusu Department of Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
  • Kwame O. Buabeng Department of Clinical and Social Pharmacy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
  • Fred A. Boateng Suntreso Government Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana
  • Ellis Owusu-Dabo Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
DOI: 10.4314/gmj.v54i3.3
Keywords: cardiovascular diseases; hypertension; Kumasi; total risk; Framingham risk score

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of morbidity and hypertension is the single most important modifiable risk. Assessment of an individual’s “total” predicted risk of developing a CVD event in 5- or 10-years using risk scores has been identified as an accurate measure of CVD risk. Using the latest Framingham risk score we assessed the risk among patients attending two cardiac clinics in Kumasi.
Methods: We conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional study among 441 patients attending two cardiac clinics in Kumasi, the Ashanti region of Ghana. Hospital records were reviewed and information on demography, social history and laboratory results for the lipid profile tests were extracted.
Results: The prevalence of low, medium and high risk were 41.5%, 28.1% and 30.4% respectively. More men were at high risk compared to females (36.0% vs 23.9%, p=0.003). The risk score showed good discrimination for cardiovascular risk stratification with an overall area under the curve of 0.95; 0.97 and 0.94 for males and females respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the Framingham risk score were 89.5% and 86.3%, respectively.
Conclusion: Majority of our study participants were at moderate to high risk with men being the most affected. The Framingham risk score proved to be a useful tool in predicting the 10-year total cardiovascular disease risk.
Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, Kumasi, total risk, Framingham risk score
Funding: Not indicated

Published
2020-09-30
Issue
Vol. 54 No. 3 (2020)
Section
Articles

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