GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels and they include; Coronary Heart Disease, Cerebrovascular disease, Peripheral artery disease, Rheumatic heart disease, Congenital heart disease, Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary. The study outlined the signs and symptoms of CVD (shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitation, light headedness and fainting). The risk factors of CVD are grouped under modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Modifiable risk factors are those which the patient can take measures to change them while non-modifiable risk factors cannot be changed. The study also review the health belief model (HBM) which is a psychological health behaviour change model developed to explain and predict health related behaviours particularly in regard to the uptake of health services. The study concluded that impact of CVD can be controlled effectively if patients are aware of their conditions and take precautionary measures and also, good knowledge of CVD risk factors and fair knowledge of the screening tests to detect CVD risk but the level of practice of screening is low the poor level of practice may be attributed to their lack of perception of personal risk or susceptibility to the disease. The study also recommended that government and health policy makers should try to know the level menace of cardiovascular disease with a view to addressing gaps in knowledge with targeted information, education and communication measures.

KEYWORDS: Cardiovascular diseases, epidemiology, risk factors.