Trends in the Prevalence and Awareness of High Cholesterol among Adults in Mississippi, United States

摘要

Elevated level of blood cholesterol (total cholesterol 240 mg/dL) is one of the major risk factor for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States. This challenge makes public health organizations and their partners to design programs that will reduce the prevalence of high cholesterol by increasing public awareness and screening. The purpose of this study was to determine trends in the prevalence and awareness of high cholesterol among adults in Mississippi. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System(BRFSS) of 2015, a cross-sectional, stratified, multistage probability sample survey of the Mississippi residents, noninstitutionalized population examined the prevalence and trend of high cholesterol according to sex and ethnicity for 5039 (n=1703 male and n=3336 females) adults aged 18 to 65 and above. The trends in the percentage of adults screened for elevated level of cholesterol and its awareness was examined using t-test statistical and frequency distribution to determine the percentage differences in the groups. About 38.6% male and 38.3% females had high cholesterol when screened. In addition, 41.9% of non-Hispanic whites was aware of high cholesterol which is higher when compared to 34.2% non-Hispanic blacks. These findings indicated an increased level of awareness of high cholesterol among non-Hispanic whites than non-Hispanic blacks. More attention should be focused on cholesterol screening and awareness, specifically among non-Hispanic blacks in Mississippi.