Development of a Community Based Screening Program for Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Disease in a Rural Community in Kaniyambadi Block.

INTRODUCTION : Non communicable diseases now cause 45% of the burden of disease in low and Middle income countries. Among them, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major and Growing contributors to mortality and disability in South Asia.1 Deaths from coronary Heart disease in India rose from 1.17 million in 1990 to 1.59 million in 2000 and are Expected to rise to 2.03 million in 2010.2 In the South East Asia Region, cardiovascular Diseases are responsible for about 25% of the dalys lost due to non-communicable Diseases.3 As per estimates, the middle and low income countries are at the midpoint of The emerging epidemic and will face its full impact in the coming years.4 Based on these Facts, there is a need to evolve effective strategies to control the epidemic of Cardiovascular diseases. One of the approaches for control of cardiovascular diseases which is shown to be Effective in developed countries is to identify and modify the risk factors of Cardiovascular disease. In India, screening for risk factors of cardiovascular disease has largely been part of Population based epidemiological studies done mostly in urban areas. Currently, the National Program for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) is planned for implementation during the Eleventh Five year Plan 2010-12.5 Tertiary care centers in cities provide several screening Packages for non communicable diseases. However these can be accessed only by a Very small subset of the population and is not feasible to be implemented in a large Scale in the country. OBJECTIVES : 1. To train volunteers to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the 30 to 60 yrs age group in a rural population. 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of training volunteers to screen for risk factors of Cardiovascular disease in a rural population. 3. To estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the 30 to 60 yrs age Group in a rural population through a community based screening program. CONCLUSIONS : This study was carried out with the objectives of training volunteers and assessing the effectiveness of a community based screening program for risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and also to estimate the prevalence of the CVD risk factors. The training program for volunteers was completed successfully in the village with significant (45%) improvement in the knowledge level of the volunteers after the training. With this, the first training objective, which was to improve the knowledge level about cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors, was fulfilled. Therefore, in conclusion, the study was successful in training volunteers and using them to screen the members of the village for cardiovascular risk factors. The volunteers’ screening procedure showed adequate validity except in BP measurement. The screening program was effective in identifying those individuals who are at risk of cardio vascular diseases