Coronary Artery Disease Risk Factors in Urban Areas of Yazd City, Iran

Abstract

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity with high health care cost in both developed and developing countries. CAD accounts for nearly 50% of all yearly deaths in Iran. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the main CAD risk factors in the urban areas of Yazd in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Methods: A hospital-based case–control study was conducted to investigate the role of the important CAD risk factors in urban area of Yazd city from December 2007 to June 2008. A total of 436 subjects in the age group of 30 to 75 years (218 cases and 218 controls) were included in this study. The tools of enquiry were a pretested and precoded questionnaire, physical examination, and laboratory findings. A confidence level of 95% and study power of 80% were considered for the interpretation of possible significant findings. Gender-wise stratified analysis was separately done for men and women using multiple conditional logistic regression. Results: A total of 75.5% of the participants were men and 24.5% were women. Five variables, including unskilled jobs, physical inactivity, giving positive history of hypertension, high levels of waist/hip ratio, and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were the factors that could account for significant predictors of CAD in males on the logistic model ( P < .05). No such significant CAD predictors were found for women. Conclusion: The findings showed that categories of nonprofessional, physical inactivity, positive history of hypertension, wais/hip ratio ≥0.9 and HDL levels ≤40 mg/dL are the significant risk factors that can predict CAD in male residents of Yazd.