Abstract

Abstract
Background/objective: With the rising concern globally about the increasing number of deaths from cardiovascular disease, it is vital to assess a population's knowledge and cardiovascular risk to establish control measures. Thus, this study aimed to assess the knowledge and prevalence of cardiovascular risk among National Health Insurance Clinic clients in UITH, Ilorin, Kwara State.
Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among the clients of the UITH NHIS clinic in Kwara State, Nigeria. Two hundred and seventy-three clients were recruited for the study and randomly selected from the department's age-sex register. Data were collected using pre-tested interviewer-administered questionnaires and analysed with IBM SPSS version 27. The data were presented in tables, and the p-value was set at 0.05.
Results: respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to 75, mean age was (40.90 ± 11.48 years). About half of the respondents had good knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors CVD), 144 (52.4%). Among the risk factors, family history of CVD was the most prevalent among the respondents, 110 (40.3%), while cigarette smoking was the least, 5 (1.8%). Smoking (ꭓ = 16.550, p = < 0.0001) and alcohol intake were significantly higher in males ((ꭓ = 14.830, p = < 0.0001), while physical inactivity (ꭓ = 11.045, p = 0.001) and obesity(ꭓ = 9.043, p = 0.018) were significantly higher in females.
Conclusion: It is imperative that CVD risk reduction strategies at the individual and population levels are entrenched by the government and other relevant agencies.

Key words: Cardiovascular risk factors, Knowledge, Prevalence