Background: Excess of lipids is a risk factor for coronary artery disease, as well as cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular diseases. Hyperlipidemia has become a significant public health problem. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of hyperlipidemia and associated factors and complications among the population aged over 21 years in Arar city, Northern Saudi Arabia.
Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study that was conducted among 480 residents of Arar city. Laboratory and physician-diagnosed hyperlipidemia, body mass index, the presence of complications among the studied cases were assessed. The significance of the association of hyperlipidemia with age, sex, body mass index, and hypertension was tested using the chi-squared test.
Results: The prevalence of laboratory diagnosed hyperlipidemia among the studied population was 53.8%. There was a significant association between hyperlipidemia and age, sex, family history, smoking, fatty diet, defective muscular exercise, including walking, high meat diet, diabetes, and body mass index group (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant correlations with alcohol consumption (p > 0.05). Complications of hyperlipidemia were reported in 34.1% of the studied cases; the ischemic heart was found in 20.2%, myocardial infarction in 7.8%, cerebrovascular stroke in 4.7%, low physical fitness in 1.6%, and chronic headache in only
0.8% of the participants.
Conclusion: The prevalence of hyperlipidemia was high in the studied population. Reported risk factors were age, sex, family history, smoking, fatty diet, defective muscular exercise, including walking, high meat diet, diabetes, and obesity. Reported complications were the ischemic heart and myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular stroke, low physical fitness, and chronic headache.
Key words: Hyperlipidemia, adults, Arar city, Northern Saudi Arabia
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