Cardiovascular Risk in Urban and Rural African Settings

This chapter presents three key studies that offer important insights into the spectrum of risk for heart disease in urban and to a lesser extent rural African communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The studies includes a time bomb of risk in an urban African community, Heart Awareness Days in Soweto and a primary care perspective in Soweto; and a time bomb of hypertension in urban and rural African communities in Nigeria. Convenience sampling was used to screen patients who approached the clearly marked Heart Awareness Days stands. The study was designed, therefore, to determine the burden and spectrum of risk and established heart disease in primary care clinics servicing the urban African community of Soweto. It raised awareness of emerging risk factors for noncommunicable forms of heart disease not only in the community of Soweto but in other urban African communities and the wider global health community.