Comparison of the cardiovascular risk profile of young Egyptian and Saudi medical students

Background: Mortality and morbidity from chronic heart disease are increasing markedly worldwide. This significant increase was also observed in young adults. Studies carried out in Saudi Arabia have shown that the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is high in the young Saudi population. Objective: Our objective was to compare the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in young Middle Eastern medical students aged 18–25 years (Egyptian and Saudi students). Results: The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was high among both Saudi and Egyptian medical students, particularly sedentary life style, obesity, and abdominal obesity. The prevalence of smoking was 29.7% in the two population. Besides a significantly higher prevalence of obesity, abdominal obesity, and reported family history of premature coronary heart disease among the Saudi sample and a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension among Egyptian men compared with Saudi men, the prevalence of risk factors among the two samples did not differ significantly. A relatively high proportion of both samples (23.9% of the Saudi sample and 16.7% of the Egyptian sample) was at an increased risk of developing fatal cardiovascular disease within 10 years. Conclusion: Besides the higher prevalence of obesity and reported family history of premature coronary heart disease, there was no statistically significant difference between the risk profiles of both samples.