Abstract
Introduction. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause
of mortality in Kyrgyzstan. The study aimed at exploring the CVD
prevalence depending on various risk factors across diverse ethnic
groups in Kyrgyzstan Materials and Methods.A cross-sectional
study was carried out among six ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan, aged 18
years and above. The sample was stratified for age, education, family
status, and income. We used a questionnaire with 47 questions to explore
the health status, behaviour and lifestyle determinants and prevalence
of CVD. We used Chi-Square Test to investigate differences between
groups, and ANCOVA to determine differences between mean scores on
analysed variable. Logistic regression was used to analyse the
relationship between independent and dependent variables. Confounding
variables were only included if they correlated with both the
independent and dependent variables. Interaction analyses were conducted
with logistic regression to investigate if there were any differences
between the nationalities in the relationships between the independent
and dependent variables. Results. Our study confirmed that the
CVD prevalence across diverse ethnic groups can be significantly
different: In Kyrgyzstan, the most disadvantaged group in this context
were East European and the least – Western Asian. There was no
difference between studied groups found in the ethnicity-stratified
prevalence of such CVD risk factors as low fruit and vegetable
consumption, alcohol intake, smoking, and BMI. There was no
statistically significant association between educational attainment and
CVD risk markers within the studied ethnic groups. The analysis of
ethnicity-stratified prevalence of CVD risk markers resulted in a
significant difference in physical activity across ethnicity groups.
Conclusion. The study results provided an understanding of the
ethnicity-stratified prevalence of CVD risk markers in the population in
Kyrgyzstan. They could serve as instrumental in tailoring targeted
public health interventions to address the burden of CVDs in specific
subpopulations.