Burden of cardiometabolic risk factors and preclinical target organ damage among adults in Freetown, Sierra Leone: a community-based health-screening survey

The study aimed to investigate the prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs), target organ damage and its associated factors among adults in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Design
This community-based cross-sectional study used a stratified multistage random sampling method to recruit adult participants. 
Setting
The health screening study was conducted between October 2019 and October 2021 in Western Area Urban, Freetown, Sierra Leone. 
Participants
A total of 2394 adults Sierra Leoneans aged 20 years, or more were enrolled.
Outcome measure
Anthropometric data, fasting lipid profiles, fasting plasma glucose, target organ damage, clinical profiles and demographic characteristic of participants were described. The cardiometabolic risks were further related to target organ damage.
Results
The prevalence of known CMRFs was 35.3% for hypertension, 8.3% for diabetes mellitus, 21.1% for dyslipidemia, 10.0% for obesity, 13.4% for smoking and 37.9% for alcohol. Additionally, 16.1% had left v..., Procedure and data collection
All eligible potential participants in each selected community were invited to participate in the ‘awareness and screening campaign for non-communicable disease’ on a designated date at the National Victoria Park. The WHO stepwise approach questionnaire guided the process of data collection for this study. Medical students, doctors and nurses were trained on the campaign's conduct, including data collection., Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistical 2.6 and STATA 17 software