CARDIOVASCULAR RISK ASSESSMENT IN CLIMACTERIC WOMEN ASSISTED IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

Resumen

This study evaluated cardiovascular risk and associated factors in climacteric women through a quantitative, transversal, and analytical approach. Probabilistic sampling was selected from clusters and later by random selection. Variables were investigated by structured and pre-tested questionnaires that included sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, anthropometric measures, clinical-obstetric factors and through the Framingham Global Risk Score. The final sample included 874 women aged 40 to 65 years, assisted in primary health care of Montes Claros/MG, Brazil. Exploratory descriptive analysis of the data was performed, considering the frequency distribution of the study variables. Bivariate analyzes searched for associations between the independent variables and the risk for cardiovascular diseases, using the chi-square test, and the associated variables were selected for the multivariate analysis up to the level of 20% (p ≤ 0.20). In the adjusted analytical phase, Poisson regression with robust variance allowed obtaining the prevalence ratios (PR) and their respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), adopting the significance level of 5% (p < 0.05) for the final model. In this study, most climacteric women were at risk for cardiovascular disease, with an increased prevalence in postmenopausal women. The menopausal transition, associated with hormonal changes, unhealthy lifestyle habits, misinformation, in addition to clinical and obstetric factors, was shown to be harmful to cardiovascular health. These findings highlight the need to assess the main risk factors to institute preventive measures at this stage.