Risk factors for incident cardiovascular events and their population attributable fractions in rural India: The Rishi Valley Prospective Cohort Study.

Objective: We prospectively determined incident cardiovascular events and their association with risk factors in rural India.

Methods: We followed up with 7935 adults from the Rishi Valley Prospective Cohort Study to identify incident cardiovascular events. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for associations between potential risk factors and cardiovascular events.

Comparison of the performance of cardiovascular risk prediction tools in rural India: the Rishi Valley Prospective Cohort Study.

Aims: We compared the performance of cardiovascular risk prediction tools in rural India.

Methods And Results: We applied the World Health Organization Risk Score (WHO-RS) tools, Australian Risk Score (ARS), and Global risk (Globorisk) prediction tools to participants aged 40-74 years, without prior cardiovascular disease, in the Rishi Valley Prospective Cohort Study, Andhra Pradesh, India. Cardiovascular events during the 5-year follow-up period were identified by verbal autopsy (fatal events) or self-report (non-fatal events).

Combining general and central measures of adiposity to identify risk of hypertension: a cross-sectional survey in rural India.

Aim: In three socioeconomically diverse regions of rural India, we determined the optimal cut-offs for definition of overweight, the prevalence of overweight, and the relationships between measures of overweight and risk of hypertension.

Subjects And Methods: Villages were randomly sampled within rural Trivandrum, West Godavari, and Rishi Valley. Sampling of individuals was stratified by age group and sex.

ASHA-Led Community-Based Groups to Support Control of Hypertension in Rural India Are Feasible and Potentially Scalable.

To improve the control of hypertension in low- and middle-income countries, we trialed a community-based group program co-designed with local policy makers to fit within the framework of India's health system. Trained accredited social health activists (ASHAs), delivered the program, in three economically and developmentally diverse settings in rural India. We evaluated the program's implementation and scalability.

Association of hypertension with infection and inflammation in a setting of disadvantage in rural India.

We assessed the association of hypertension with markers of inflammation and infection in a rural and disadvantaged Indian population. In a case-control study, we age- and gender-matched 300 cases with hypertension to 300 controls without hypertension. Blood pressure was measured according to a strict protocol.

Renal and dietary factors associated with hypertension in a setting of disadvantage in rural India.

Using a case-control design, we determined risk factors associated with hypertension in a disadvantaged rural population in southern India. Three hundred adults with hypertension and 300 age- and sex-matched controls were extensively phenotyped. Underweight (29%, body mass index < 18.

Effectiveness of a scalable group-based education and monitoring program, delivered by health workers, to improve control of hypertension in rural India: A cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background: New methods are required to manage hypertension in resource-poor settings. We hypothesised that a community health worker (CHW)-led group-based education and monitoring intervention would improve control of blood pressure (BP).

Methods And Findings: We conducted a baseline community-based survey followed by a cluster randomised controlled trial of people with hypertension in 3 rural regions of South India, each at differing stages of epidemiological transition.

Knowledge of risk factors for hypertension in a rural Indian population.

Objective: To study knowledge of risk factors and consequences of hypertension in a rural population in South India.

Methods: This is a community-based study conducted among adults of a rural population in the Rishi Valley, India. Residents of randomised rural villages were invited to participate in a study of hypertension.

Dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and change in waist circumference: 15-year longitudinal study in Australian adults.

Background And Objectives: Dietary behaviours are suitable as clearly identifiable targets of dietary counselling to prevent weight gain. We therefore investigated associations between dietary behaviours, weight loss attempts and waist circumference change.

Methods And Study Design: Participants were a community-based sample population residing in Nambour, Australia, including 1,317 adults, aged 25-75 years at baseline.

Cluster randomised feasibility trial to improve the Control of Hypertension In Rural India (CHIRI): a study protocol.

Introduction: Hypertension is emerging in rural populations of India. Barriers to diagnosis and treatment of hypertension may differ regionally according to economic development. Our main objectives are to estimate the prevalence, awareness, treatment and control of hypertension in 3 diverse regions of rural India; identify barriers to diagnosis and treatment in each setting and evaluate the feasibility of a community-based intervention to improve control of hypertension.

Association between salt and hypertension in rural and urban populations of low to middle income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population based studies.

Background And Objectives: The prevalence of hypertension, the greatest contributor to mortality globally, is increasing in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). In urban regions of LMICs, excessive salt intake is associated with increased risk of hypertension. We aimed to determine whether this is the case in rural regions as well.

Novel dietary intake assessment in populations with poor literacy.

Background And Objectives: Cultural and/or environmental barriers make the assessment of dietary intake in rural populations challenging. We aimed to assess the accuracy of a meal recall questionnaire, adapted for use with impoverished South Indian populations living in rural areas.

Methods And Study Design: Dietary data collected by recall versus weighed meals were compared.

Dietary patterns and weight change: 15-year longitudinal study in Australian adults.

Background: Dietary intake is one of the most modifiable risk factors associated with obesity. However, data on the relationship between dietary patterns and long-term weight change are limited.

Purpose: We therefore investigated the association between dietary patterns and 15-year weight change in a sample of 1186 Australian adults (1992-2007).

Do the socioeconomic and hypertension gradients in rural populations of low- and middle-income countries differ by geographical region? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Of the 1 billion people with hypertension globally, two-thirds reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The risk of hypertension in LMICs is thought to be positively associated with socioeconomic status (SES). However, recent studies have provided data inconsistent with this concept.

Adiposity has a greater impact on hypertension in lean than not-lean populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

More than 75 % of people with hypertension live in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs). Based on the mismatch theory of developmental origins of disease, we hypothesised that the impact of adiposity on hypertension is augmented in lean compared with not-lean populations in rural areas of LMICs (RLMICs). We reviewed studies from RLMICs in which the association between body mass index (BMI) or waist circumference (WC) and hypertension was assessed using multivariable models.

Association between farming and chronic energy deficiency in rural South India.

Objective: To examine factors associated with chronic energy deficiency (CED) and anaemia in disadvantaged Indian adults who are mostly involved in subsistence farming.

Design: A cross-sectional study in which we collected information on socio-demographic factors, physical activity, anthropometry, blood haemoglobin concentration, and daily household food intake. These data were used to calculate body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), daily energy expenditure, and energy and nutrient intake.

Discharge is a critical time to influence 10-year use of secondary prevention therapies for stroke.

Background And Purpose: When optimally managed, patients with stroke are less likely to have further vascular events. We aimed to identify factors associated with optimal use of secondary prevention therapies in long-term survivors of stroke.

Methods: We carefully documented discharge medications at baseline and self-reported use of medications at annual follow-up in the Northeast Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS).

Is stroke incidence in low- to middle-income countries driven by economics?

The incidence of stroke in low- to middle-income countries now exceeds that in high-income countries. These low- to middle-income countries also have greater case fatality and a younger age of stroke onset, factors that contribute to a high stroke burden. Macroeconomic indicators of socioeconomic status, such as health expenditure, appear to be inversely associated with stroke incidence.

Diet quality and change in anthropometric measures: 15-year longitudinal study in Australian adults.

Evidence from longitudinal studies on the association between diet quality and change in anthropometric measures is scarce. We therefore investigated the relationship between a recently developed food-based dietary index and change in measured BMI and waist circumference (WC) in Australian adults (1992-2007). We used data from the Australian population-based Nambour Skin Cancer Study comprising 1231 adults aged 25-75 years at baseline (1992).

Longitudinal change in diet quality in Australian adults varies by demographic, socio-economic, and lifestyle characteristics.

Knowledge of determinants of change in diet quality is needed, but it is relatively limited to date and mostly available from cross-sectional studies. We investigated longitudinal change in diet quality and its associations with period of birth (birth cohort) and socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics. We used dietary intake data collected by FFQ in 1992, 1996, and 2007 from a population-based random sample of adults comprising 1511 men and women aged 25-75 y at baseline and applied generalized estimating equations to examine determinants of long-term change in diet quality, calculated using a diet quality index reflecting dietary guidelines for Australian adults.