Cardiovascular Risk Factors and 10-year Risk for Coronary Heart Disease in Korean Women

SummaryPurposeThe purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and to estimate the 10-year risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) in a nationally representative sample of Korean women.MethodsThis is a secondary data analysis using the data set from the 2008 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey IV. The sample was 2,998 Korean women (weighted n = 14,420,987) aged 20–79 years without cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was calculated using sampling weights and presented in percentages. Ten-year risk for CHD was estimated with the Framingham Risk Score, and the proportions for three levels of 10-year risk were presented.ResultsAbout 18% of the sample had hypertension, 7.5% are current smoker, 30.0% had total cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dL, 25.7% had low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥ 130 mg/dL, and 47.3% had high-density lipoprotein cholesterol < 50 mg/dL. About 46% of Korean women were overweight or obese, and 33.3% were sedentary. About 75% of women had one or more major risk factors. In this study sample, 98.5% had a 10-year risk for CHD of < 10%, 1.4% had a risk of 10–20%, and 0.1% had a risk of > 20%.ConclusionModifiable cardiovascular risk factors are highly prevalent in Korean women, and the combination of risk factors is common. Development and implementation of multifaceted nursing interventions are required to confront the current epidemic rise of CHD in Korean women.