Ideal Cardiovascular Health by Gender in Cardiology Outpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Ideal cardiovascular health (ICH) has defined to reduce cardiovascular disease and to improve health by 2020. The aim was to evaluate ICH and recurrence of myocardial infarctions by gender in cardiology outpatients. Methods: The questionnaire form was applied by face-to-face interviews method by researchers. It was used American Heart Association definitions to determine the cardiovascular risk factors and ICH. Having each risk factor was defined as 1 point. According to this, the total cardiovascular health score calculated ranged from 0 to 7. It is considered statistically significant if p≤0.05. Results: The ages of 261 participants of the study group ranged between 18 and 83, the mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 50.68±15.39 years in the entire study group, 51.03±15.17 years in men and 50.44±15.58 years in women (p>0.05). The ICH status among the participants was found to be 4.6%. In the study, in both sexes there was a moderate positive correla- tion between the total cardiovascular health score and the number of experienced myocardial infarctions. Discussion and Conclusion: ICH frequency was found to be very low in both sexes. Furthermore, ICH score was associated with myocardial infarction recurrences in both sexes.