<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><bold>Background</bold>. The Roma population has a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, higher mortality, and shorter life expectancy. It is found in the largest number in Romania, but published data are still scarce here. We studied cardiovascular risk factors and disease along with target organ damage on a population of Roma inhabitants from Bucharest, Romania.<bold>Methods</bold>. This cross-sectional study enrolled 806 Roma subjects (18-83 years), in a community-based participatory research manner. Demographics included anthropometric data, a questionnaire on social status, education, medical history, and health deleterious behaviors. Medical evaluation included clinical examination, blood pressure, ankle-brachial index, pulse wave velocity measurements, blood tests (complete blood count, lipid profile, glucose, creatinine, uric acid), dip-stick microalbuminuria, dilated fundoscopy, ECG, and echocardiography.<bold>Results</bold>. Prevalence of all cardiovascular risk factors was high, peaking in abnormal lipid metabolism (82.13%), heavy smoking (63.02% including ex-smokers) and obesity (50.99%). The first and the latter were actually similar to the general population in Romania. Almost half of subjects were at high or very high risk for fatal cardiovascular disease.<bold>Conclusions</bold>. The study shows that the Roma population in a more affluent region in Romania shares a similarly high cardiovascular burden to their surrounding community.</abstract>

Background. The Roma population has a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, higher mortality, and shorter life expectancy. It is found in the largest number in Romania, but published data are still scarce here. We studied cardiovascular risk factors and disease along with target organ damage on a population of Roma inhabitants from Bucharest, Romania.Methods. This cross-sectional study enrolled 806 Roma subjects (18-83 years), in a community-based participatory research manner. Demographics included anthropometric data, a questionnaire on social status, education, medical history, and health deleterious behaviors. Medical evaluation included clinical examination, blood pressure, ankle-brachial index, pulse wave velocity measurements, blood tests (complete blood count, lipid profile, glucose, creatinine, uric acid), dip-stick microalbuminuria, dilated fundoscopy, ECG, and echocardiography.Results. Prevalence of all cardiovascular risk factors was high, peaking in abnormal lipid metabolism (82.13%), heavy smoking (63.02% including ex-smokers) and obesity (50.99%). The first and the latter were actually similar to the general population in Romania. Almost half of subjects were at high or very high risk for fatal cardiovascular disease.Conclusions. The study shows that the Roma population in a more affluent region in Romania shares a similarly high cardiovascular burden to their surrounding community.

Cardiovascular risk factors in a Roma sample population from Romania

Internal Medicine Department, “Floreasca” Emergency Clinical Hospital

“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Romanian Journal of Internal Medicine

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Cardiovascular risk factors in a Roma sample population from Romania"}

Background. The Roma population has a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, higher mortality, and shorter life expectancy. It is found in the largest...

Cardiovascular risk factors in a Roma sample population from Romania

Published Online: Aug 29, 2018

Page range: 193 - 202

Received: Feb 25, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rjim-2018-0010

Keywords
cardiovascular risk factors, gypsy, Roma population

© 2018 Emma Weiss et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Cardiovascular risk factors in a Roma sample population from Romania

Published Online: Aug 29, 2018

Page range: 193 - 202

Received: Feb 25, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rjim-2018-0010

Keywordscardiovascular risk factors, gypsy, Roma population

© 2018 Emma Weiss et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
cardiovascular risk factors, gypsy, Roma population