Cardiovascular risk factors in Pakistan

Pakistan is undergoing a demographic and epidemiological transition. As morbidity and mortality are decreasing among children, noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, are emerging among adults as priority health problems. It is to be expected that these diseases will assume more menacing proportions with further decline in infant mortality and as more people reach adulthood. The cost of management of established cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) will be an unsupportable burden on the existing health infrastructure. Prevention of CVD risk factors is logical, cost-effective, and very important. The findings of the National Health Survey of Pakistan and other community-based studies provide valuable data about classical risk factors for coronary heart disease and stroke, such as serum cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, and tobacco use. Development of community intervention projects to address CVD risk factors based on the concepts of primordial and primary prevention will be a step in the right direction.