Prevalence and risk factors associated with peripheral arterial disease in an adult population from Colombia.

Lorena Urbano, Eliana Portilla, Wilson Muñoz, Albert Hofman, Carlos H Sierra-Torres

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most important cause of mortality in Latin America while peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is the third leading cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular morbidity. To establish the prevalence of PAD and the distribution of traditional CVD risk factors in a population from the Department of Cauca, Colombia. A cross-sectional study was performed in a total of 10,000 subjects aged ≥40 years from 36 municipalities. An ankle-brachial index (ABI) ≤0.9 in either leg was used diagnostic criterion of PAD. Overall PAD prevalence was 4.4% (4.7% females vs. 4.0% males), with diabetes being the most prevalent risk factor (23%). Among individuals self-reporting a history of acute myocardial infarction or stroke, PAD prevalence was 31.0% and 8.1%, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, PAD was significantly associated to hypertension (OR 4.6; 95% CI 3.42-6.20), diabetes (4.3; 3.17-5.75), dyslipidemia (3.1; 2.50-3.88), obesity (1.8; 1.37-2.30) and cigarette smoking (1.6; 1.26-1.94). Analysis for the interaction of risk factors showed that diabetes, dyslipidemia and obesity accounted for 13.2 times the risk for PAD (6.9-25.4), and when adding hypertension to the model, the risk effect was the highest (17.2; 8.4-35.1). Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity but not smoking were strong predictors of PAD. ABI measurement should be routinely conducted as a screening test in intermediate and high-risk patients for CVD prevention. This will allow for early intervention and follow up on populations at risk, thus, contributing to improve strategies for reducing CVD burden.