Knowledge of common cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors among members of a community in South-South Nigeria

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Reducing the burden of CVD particularly among rural dwellers will require a wholistic approach involving health education, and strengthening of primary health care to provide affordable primary care to the people. Aim: To access the knowledge of CVD and its risk factors among the people. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study of 360 adult residents of Igueben, a rural community in Edo State South-South Nigeria, selected through a multistage sampling technique. An interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data which were analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Respondents were mostly female (67.78%) with a mean age of 45 ± 08 years. Over half of the respondents were farmers (58.33%), and 57.78% of respondents did not have secondary education. Over 50% had knowledge of stroke, and more than two-third of them were able to recognise common stroke symptoms such as difficulty speaking, facial weakness, and sudden limb weakness. Most respondents had knowledge of common risk factors for CVD, especially smoking, alcohol use, and hypertension. Respondents demonstrated a good knowledge of the preventive and control measures of CVD like healthy diet (60.56%), regular exercise (60.56%), alcohol and smoking cessation (60.56%), good sleep (55.56%), good health-seeking behaviour (55.55%), and avoidance of stress (54.44%). Furthermore, 78.89% of the participants recognised the need for hospital care in the event of a CVD. However, one-third of them had a poor health-seeking behaviour. Conclusion: We have found that this rural population had knowledge of stroke as a CVD as well as other common ones such as heart attack and heart failure. They also had a good health-seeking behaviour. However, while CVD awareness alone is no guarantee for positive cardiovascular outcomes, a good knowledge is clearly necessary for individuals to make informed decisions about their health by potentially adopting risk-free behaviours.