The prevalence of cardiovascular disease risk factors among adults living in extreme poverty

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Pascal Geldsetzer
  • Rebecca L Tisdale
  • Lisa Stehr
  • Felix Michalik
  • Julia Lemp
  • Krishna K Aryal
  • Albertino Damasceno
  • Corine Houehanou
  • Jutta Mari Adelin Jørgensen
  • Nuno Lunet
  • Mary Mayige
  • Sahar Saeedi Moghaddam
  • Kibachio Joseph Mwangi
  • Christian Bommer
  • Maja-Emilia Marcus
  • Michaela Theilmann
  • Cara Ebert
  • Rifat Atun
  • Justine Ina Davies
  • David Flood
  • And 4 others
  • Jennifer Manne-Goehler
  • Jacqueline Seiglie
  • Till Bärnighausen
  • Sebastian Vollmer

Evidence on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor prevalence among adults living below the World Bank's international line for extreme poverty (those with income <$1.90 per day) globally is sparse. Here we pooled individual-level data from 105 nationally representative household surveys across 78 countries, representing 85% of people living in extreme poverty globally, and sorted individuals by country-specific measures of household income or wealth to identify those in extreme poverty. CVD risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity and dyslipidaemia) were present among 17.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 16.7-18.3%), 4.0% (95% CI 3.6-4.5%), 10.6% (95% CI 9.0-12.3%), 3.1% (95% CI 2.8-3.3%) and 1.4% (95% CI 0.9-1.9%) of adults in extreme poverty, respectively. Most were not treated for CVD-related conditions (for example, among those with hypertension earning <$1.90 per day, 15.2% (95% CI 13.3-17.1%) reported taking blood pressure-lowering medication). The main limitation of the study is likely measurement error of poverty level and CVD risk factors that could have led to an overestimation of CVD risk factor prevalence among adults in extreme poverty. Nonetheless, our results could inform equity discussions for resource allocation and design of effective interventions.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Human Behaviour
Number of pages17
ISSN2397-3374
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 2024

Bibliographical note

© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

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