Cardiovascular disease risk factors among school children of Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE: Primarily, we assessed the distribution of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among school children living in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. In addition to this, we sought the association between place of residence and modifiable CVD risk factors among them. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 854 school children (aged 12–18 years) of Bangladesh. Ten public high schools (five from Dhaka and five from Sirajgonj district) were selected randomly and subjects from those were recruited conveniently. To link the family milieu of CVD risk factors, a parent of each children was also interviewed. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Distribution of CVD risk factors was measured using descriptive statistics as appropriate. Again, a saturated model of binary logistic regression was used to seek the association between place of residence and modifiable CVD risk factors. RESULTS: Mean age of the school children was 14.6±1.1 years and more than half (57.6%) were boys. Overall, 4.4% were currently smoker (urban—3.5%, rural—5.2%) with a strong family history of smoking (42.2%). Similar proportion of school children were identified as overweight (total 9.8%, urban 14.7%, rural 5%) and obese (total 9.8%, urban 16.8%, rural 2.8%) with notable urban-rural difference. More than three-fourth (80%) of them were physically inactive with no urban-rural variation. Only 2.4% consumed recommended fruits and/ or vegetables (urban—3.1%, rural—1.7%). In the adjusted model, place of residence had higher odds for having several modifiable CVD risk factors: current smoking (OR: 1.807, CI 0.872 to 3.744), inadequate fruits and vegetables intake (OR: 1.094, CI 0.631 to 1.895), physical inactivity (OR: 1.082, CI 0.751 to 1.558), overweight (OR: 3.812, CI 2.245 to 6.470) and obesity (OR: 7.449, CI 3.947 to 14.057). CONCLUSIONS: Both urban and rural school children of Bangladesh had poor CVD risk factors profile that demands further nation-wide large scale study to clarify the current findings more precisely.