Cardiovascular health literacy in Nepal: Increasing awareness of cardiovascular diseases is important but inadequate

Abstract

The last decade witnessed quite an upsurge in cardiovascular studies in Nepal. Since the pioneering works of Dr.
M.R. Pandey and his colleagues in the 1980s, there have been many population and hospital-based cardiovascular
studies published or reported. Some of these publications are based on studies done in smaller geographical locations
while a few are nationally representative. All these population-based studies nevertheless point towards the same
direction- a high prevalence of underlying risk factors- be it biological factors such as hypertension and obesity; or the
behavioural ones like tobacco and physical activity. There has been, however, not much research at the population level
on biochemical risk factors such as diabetes mellitus and lipid profile. Genetic studies are thus even rarer in that sense.