Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in two Brazilian quilombola communities in Southwest Bahia State

Cardiovascular diseases represent one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, accounting for approximately 17 million deaths per year. Despite the severity of these diseases, the risk factors are well established. They include systemic arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, smoking, black ethnicity and low socioeconomic conditions. Quilombola communities are predominantly composed of black individuals and generally present low socioeconomic indicators, with strong indications of a high stratification of risk factors, although still poorly studied. Thus, the present cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 with 116 residents of the Maria Clemência and Oiteiro quilombola communities, aged 20 or older. The following indicators were considered: serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and cholesterol fractions (LDL and HDL) levels; Castelli Index I (CT/HDL-c) and Castelli Index II (LDL-c/HDL-c); TG/HDL-C ratio; Framingham score, Body Mass Index (BMI); waist circumference (WC); fasting glucose (FG); glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c); and blood pressure (BP), which was subdivided into systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure. Statistical analyses consisted of the Student's t-test and Chi-square (χ2) test. A significance level of 5% and confidence interval of 95% were adopted. In general, the Framingham risk score, WC, FG, TC, LDL, TG, FG, Castelli indices I and II indicated moderate to high cardiovascular risk in the population, especially in individuals older than 50 years. Regarding the sex of the individuals, the men's averages were higher than those of the women only in the Framingham Score; in the other indicators (DBP, SBP, BMI, WC, TC, LDL, HDL, TG, TG/HDL-C ratio, Castelli indices I and II, FG and HbA1c), women were statistically more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. The study established that the Quilombola community studied presents moderate to high cardiovascular risk factors, especially among females. The results may guide actions aimed at reducing risks as well as treating individuals with already installed diseases, in order to minimize or neutralize the damage caused by cardiovascular diseases.