Abstract:
Cardiovascular diseases represent a major public health problem due to their high prevalence.
According to the World Health Organization, they were responsible for 17.9 million deaths in
2019. In Algeria, data from 2016 indicate that 76% of deaths were due to non-communicable
diseases, of which 36% were attributed to cardiovascular diseases.
In light of these concerning figures, we conducted a predictive study aimed at estimating the
prevalence of overall cardiovascular risk within the population of the municipality of Ghardaïa,
evaluating the prevalence of associated risk factors, and analyzing their distribution based on the
characteristics of the studied sample.
To achieve this, data from 647 individuals free of any cardiovascular disease were collected
from 3 public health establishments (EPSP) in the municipality of Ghardaïa and analyzed using
the Framingham Risk Score to assess individual risk.
The results showed that 57.34% of the subjects had a low risk, 17.46% had a moderate risk,
and 25.19% had a high risk. Men were found to be more exposed to cardiovascular risk than
women, with a marked but not statistically significant difference. 60.68% of women were
classified as low-risk, compared to 50.47% of men. A highly significant increase in risk was
observed with age progression, in both women and men.
The prevalence of risk factors observed in our sample, in descending order, was as follows:
hypertension (45.74%), low HDL cholesterol (27.20%), type 2 diabetes (14.57%),
hypercholesterolemia (9.89%), and smoking (3.70%). Thus, hypertension appears to be the most
decisive factor in overall cardiovascular risk within this population.
