Cardiovascular disease (CVD) stands as a significant public health challenge and ranks among the leading causes of death. It includes various conditions like atherosclerosis, stroke, heart failure, and more. In Africa, CVD-related deaths accounted for 38% of all non-communicable disease-related deaths in 2013, marking a twofold increase since 1990.
Factors contributing to this rise include population growth, urbanization, lifestyle shifts, and a high prevalence of modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, smoking, poor diet, hyperlipidemia, excessive alcohol consumption, and obesity.
Developing countries, in particular, witness a surge in CVD and associated risk factors, with a higher mortality rate among younger individuals compared to developed nations. This trend is often linked to limited knowledge and ineffective preventive strategies, exacerbated by high poverty rates. Recognizing CVD risk factors is essential for effective prevention efforts, especially among children, adolescents, and young adults, identified as key demographics for prevention programs.
Adolescence and young adulthood are pivotal life stages marked by profound physical, psychological, and social changes. During this time, individuals develop new cognitive capacities, gain independence, and adopt behaviors influenced by peers, shaping their current and future health outcomes. Consequently, health behaviors adopted during young adulthood significantly impact long-term health.
Although CVD typically manifests in adulthood, risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, and unhealthy lifestyle habits often emerge during adolescence and persist into adulthood. Establishing healthy lifestyles early on plays a critical role in reducing CVD risk, as these habits tend to endure into older age. Given that modifiable risk factors are preventable, treatable, and controllable, early detection among adolescents and young adults is essential, facilitated by accessible health information and disease awareness.
An understanding of health information, knowledge, and perceptions regarding diseases and bodily functions is instrumental in determining health status and outcomes. These factors play a pivotal role in fostering healthy behaviors and mitigating risk factors by facilitating informed decision-making about health matters. Various models, such as the health belief model, highlights the significance of disease knowledge in shaping attitudes, practices, treatment adherence, and ultimately reducing disease prevalence and complications.
Numerous studies worldwide have investigated knowledge, awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and risk stratification concerning cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors. However, there is a scarcity of information specifically regarding the knowledge and perceptions of CVD and its risk factors among adolescents and young adults in Nigeria.
Furthermore, only a handful of studies have explored these aspects among adults in Nigeria. This lack of data poses a challenge to the effective implementation of prevention programs targeting this demographic. Thus, this article aimed to explore the knowledge and perceptions of CVD and its risk factors among adolescents and young adults, with a focus on a university setting.
In a study published in African Journal of Primary Health care and Family medicine in 2020 titled “Towards cardiovascular disease prevention in Nigeria: A mixed method study of how adolescents and young adults in a university setting perceive cardiovascular disease and risk factors”, Adolescents and young adults were questioned on the knowledge of CVD and its risk factors.
The study employed a mixed-method design, utilizing both a cross-sectional survey and exploratory qualitative study (focus group discussion). Participants were undergraduate students randomly selected from various faculties at the University of Ibadan, excluding those previously diagnosed or currently affected by cardiovascular disease (CVD). The sample size for the survey was determined using Slovin’s formula, while purposive sampling was used for the qualitative study.
Two instruments were used: the Heart Disease Fact Questionnaire and the Perception of Risk of Heart Disease Scale, both self-administered to assess participants’ knowledge and perception of CVD and its risk factors. The cross-sectional survey gathered socio-demographic data alongside administering the questionnaires. Focus group discussions involved 16 participants from different faculties, conducted until saturation with audio recording and note-taking for analysis.
Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, independent t-tests, and one-way ANOVA. Qualitative data from the focus group discussions underwent content thematic analysis. Data collection occurred over three months, with a significance level set at 0.05 for the quantitative analysis.
The study’s findings revealed a generally poor level of knowledge regarding cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors among the participants. This aligns with similar research conducted among undergraduate students in Palestine, where knowledge levels were also found to be suboptimal. However, the participants in this study demonstrated a higher level of knowledge compared to older adult university workers in Nigeria but a lower level compared to medical students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The disparity in knowledge levels between studies could be attributed to differences in the participants’ backgrounds and areas of study, as the UAE study exclusively involved medical students.
The qualitative component of the study further reinforced the quantitative findings, highlighting participants’ limited understanding of CVD and its risk factors. While some participants could identify CVD as a heart-related disease, few recognized it as also involving blood vessels. This lack of comprehensive understanding was consistent with previous research.
However, the participants displayed relatively better awareness of lifestyle-related risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, unhealthy diet, obesity, and stress. Nevertheless, they struggled to articulate how these factors contribute to CVD, reflecting a gap in knowledge regarding the mechanisms involved.
Interestingly, participants exhibited poor knowledge regarding diabetes and cholesterol as risk factors for CVD. While they acknowledged high cholesterol as a risk factor, they struggled to differentiate between the roles of good and bad cholesterol, a common challenge reported in previous research. Additionally, participants held misconceptions regarding the awareness of CVD symptoms among sufferers, indicating a lack of understanding regarding disease progression and symptomatology.
Bottom Line
There is need for targeted educational interventions to improve knowledge and awareness of CVD and its risk factors among university students, particularly in non-medical fields. Moreover, efforts should focus on enhancing understanding of the underlying mechanisms linking risk factors to CVD development, thus enabling more informed preventive measures and health behaviors.
