A new study reveals that many people living in extreme poverty in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have conditions that lead to heart disease, the world's #1 cause of death -; overturning 'conventional wisdom'.
In the largest analysis of its kind exploring the relationship between poverty and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, experts discovered a high prevalence of hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and dyslipidemia in LMICs regardless of income -;yet most adults living in extreme poverty were not treated for these CVD-related conditions.
An international group of researchers note that their findings, published today (13 March) in Nature Human Behaviour, contradict the common assumption that the environment (eg. food scarcity) and lifestyles (eg. more physical labour) of those living in extreme poverty in LMICs protect against CVD risk factors.
Evidence on CVD risk factor prevalence among adults living below the World Bank's international line for extreme poverty is sparse. To address this paucity of needed information, the researchers pooled data from 105 nationally representative household surveys across 78 countries.
Pascal Geldsetzer, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, USA, commented: "Our detailed analyses of how CVD risk factor prevalence and treatment coverage vary around the world could help to effectively target interventions and policies to reduce CVD risk in vulnerable populations. Moreover, our study provides a crucial empirical foundation for future work in improving health outcomes for those living in the poorest sections of global society."