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Multiple coronary risk factors in healthy older Kuwaiti males

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 56, pages 709–714 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: The objective was to examine the percentage and severity of obesity and some common biochemical coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in a sample of healthy Kuwaiti adult males ≥45 y of age. We also sought to determine the percentage of males at increased risk due to the presence of multiple CHD risk factors.

Design: The study was a cross-sectional study.

Setting: The study was conducted in all men who underwent a mandatory job related physical examination or who sought to obtain retirement benefits.

Subjects: A total of 740 healthy Kuwaiti males between the ages of 45 to 80 y.

Results: In all, 37% of the men were obese, 26% had elevated glucose values and 52% had elevated or high cholesterol levels. Some had multiple risk factors for CHD, including age ≥45 y, obesity, male gender, hyperglycemia and hypercholesterolemia. Blood glucose values increased consistently from younger (45–54 y) to older age groups (55–64 and ≥65 y). Blood glucose values varied inversely with education level.

Conclusions: In societies with relatively uniform income levels, educational level may be a better indicator of chronic disease risk than income per se. These results, showing a high percentage of men with several risk factors and high mean values, suggesting more severe risk, suggest that immediate action should be taken to develop a public health intervention strategy to educate Kuwaiti men to become aware of the causes and correlates of CHD and how to decrease their risk for CHD and heart attack, the leading cause of death in Kuwait.

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Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks go to the members of the nutrition field research team, which included Najat Al Enizy, Dalal Al Fadly, Badrya Al Marshid and Eman Al Refai. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Medical Council and the Public Authority for Social Security and to the Kuwaiti men who volunteered for this study. Thanks are also due to the University of Maryland International Travel Fund for financial support.

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Author notes

  1. RT Jackson: Guarantor: RT Jackson.

  2. RT Jackson, Z Al-Mousa, M Al-Raqua, P Prakash and AN Muhanna: Contributors: RTJ had major responsibility for data analysis and manuscript preparation; ZA-M was involved with planning the study and overseeing the field and research staff; MA-R supervised the day-to-day operation of the field research and was involved in planning the study; PP was involved in questionnaire development, questionnaire validity testing, and with data entry and cleaning; ANM was involved in data cleaning and preliminary data analysis.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    RT Jackson

  2. Community Nutrition Unit, Ministry of Health, Al-Shaab, Kuwait

    Z Al-Mousa, M Al-Raqua, P Prakash & AN Muhanna

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  1. RT Jackson
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Jackson, R., Al-Mousa, Z., Al-Raqua, M. et al. Multiple coronary risk factors in healthy older Kuwaiti males. Eur J Clin Nutr 56, 709–714 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601379

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