Modifiable risk factors for myocardial infarction among hypertensive patients visiting outpatient clinics of tertiary care hospitals in coastal south India

Objectives: To assess the proportion of modifiable risk factors for myocardial infarction (MI) among hypertensive patients and to categorize them into different risk categories so as to determine the probability of developing MI in near future. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study done in two tertiary care hospitals attached to a medical college in south India. 600 hypertensive patients were interviewed by the treating physician using convenient sampling technique after taking the written informed consent from them. The interview was conducted using the non-laboratory INTERHEART Modifiable Risk Score (non-laboratory IHMRS scores). Results: The majority of the study participants (n=404, 67.3%) never smoked in their life time, 21.6% were former smokers (n=130), and 11.1% of the study participants were currently smoking (n=66). More than half of the study participants (n=328, 54.7%) were currently diabetic. Most of them had abdominal obesity (n=469, 78.2%). Around 35.3% (n=212) of the subjects had felt sad or depressed for 2 weeks or more in a row in the last year. Fruits and vegetables were not consumed one or more times daily by 35.5% (n=213) and 11.1% (n=67) of the subjects respectively. A 19 patients (3.2%) were in the lowest risk category, 132 (22%) were at moderate risk, and 449 (74.8%) fell into the highest risk category for development of MI. Conclusion: The present study categorized the hypertensive patients into different risk categories; wherein majority of them fell into the high-risk category. Thus, this non-laboratory IHMRS can be used as a risk predictor for the development of MI.