Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of disability and death in the world and especially in older adults. The aim of this study was the comparison of predictor variables of cardiovascular disease risk factors in the male and female elderly of Hamadan City.
Method: In this study, the study population consisted of Hamadan city elderly (n = 321) men and women, which were selected by Cluster random sampling technique among the elderly in the Hamadan City in 1393. The research instrument was a questionnaire consisting two parts: demographic characteristics (age, gender, etc.) and the factors related to cardiovascular disease (body mass index, waist circumference, blood pressure, etc. (. The validity of the questionnaire was measured by the content validity index and the reliability was determined by Cranach’s alpha coefficient (93%). In addition, other data related to variables such as height and weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, blood lipids, and fasting blood glucose were collected. The data were analyzed through using descriptive and analytic statistics by SPSS Version 16 software.
Results: The total number of participants in the study was 321 elderly people over 65 years old in Hamadan, of whom 161 were men and 160 were women. 16.2% of the elderly have various degrees of high systolic blood pressure (at least 140 mm Hg), that was more prevalent elderly men (15.6%) than women (0.6%). The Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) enhanced level in elderly women (6.3%) was more prevalent than men (4.9%). 35.6 percent of the elderly people had high triglyceride level and 53.2 percent had the level lower than normal High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) level. The prevalence of abdominal obesity in the elderly men (20.9%) in comparison with elderly women (20%) was significantly higher (P=0.0003). The prevalence of hypoglycemia in elderly men (20.1%) was significantly greater than the older women (9.4%).
Conclusion: Given the high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in elderly women and men, an accurate and comprehensive plan to explore associated factors and continuing education is necessary in order to change the lifestyle, including proper nutrition, exercise and continuous physical activity that are effective ways to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.