Prevalence of Obesity, Overweight and other Cardiovascular Risk Factors Among Iranian Military Personnel in 2022

Yousef  Alimohamadi; Mojtaba  Sepandi; Esmaeil  Samadipour; Sima  Afrashteh

doi:10.18502/jbe.v11i3.21372

Yousef Alimohamadi Health Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mojtaba Sepandi Health Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Esmaeil Samadipour Health Research Center, Life Style Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Sima Afrashteh Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jbe.v11i3.21372

Keywords: Cardiovascular risk; Iranian; Military; Personnel; Framingham risk score

Abstract

Introduction: The incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) have increased in Iran, considering the importance of documenting and generating information about the risk of CVD in the military community, the current study aimed to measure the prevalence of risk CVD factors as well as predict the 10-year risk of CVD among the Iranian military personnel. The FRS items include age, gender, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), systolic blood pressure, status of diabetes and smoking.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1025 male military personnel in 2022. For comparative analysis, ANOVA or t-test, as well as the Chi-square (or Fisher's exact) test was used. All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 22 software. The statistical significance level was set at 0.05.

Results: The prevalence of hypertension was 2.3 % and increased with age. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased with age and was 54.7% as well as 14.1%, respectively, in those 40- 45 years of age. Diabetes affected 6.2% of the oldest group and 8.2% of participants aged 40–45 years. TC was increased in one-third of understudied cases. The percentage of abnormal LDL-C was 57.5%. These results were accompanied by increased TG in 34.6%, low HDL-C in 36.4%, and FPG >100 mg/dl in 13.2% of subjects. Out of a total of 608 participants over 30 years of old, a low FRS (<10%) was calculated for 571 (93.9%), the others, were classified as moderate (5.6%) and high (0.5%) risk. The prevalence of hypertension among the high and moderate FRS risk group was higher than low-risk group older persons have a higher 10- year CVD risk level (p < 0.001). The level of, blood pressure, FPG, LDL, TC, and TG, in the high-risk group, was significantly higher than in the two other groups (P=0.001).

Conclusion: Although a high proportion of military personnel had a low risk of CVD in the next 10 years, the high prevalence of overweight and other risk factors such as LDL level needs special attention.