Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Feb 28, 2020; 8(1): 15-26
Published online Feb 28, 2020. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v8.i1.15
Gender prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the geriatric population of India: A meta-analysis using R
Himani Nanda, Vijay Kumar Shivgotra
Himani Nanda, Vijay Kumar Shivgotra, Department of Statistics, University of Jammu, Jammu 180006, India
Author contributions: Nanda H and Shivgotra VK both designed the study, the literature was reviewed by the first author, then by the second author; data collection, data analysis and writing of the paper was performed by Nanda H under the supervision of Shivgotra VK.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors prepared the research paper after reading the PRSIMA checklist 2009.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vijay Kumar Shivgotra, MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Jammu, Babasaheb BR Ambedkar Road Jammu, Jammu 180006, India. vijayshivgotra@yahoo.com
Received: September 3, 2019
Peer-review started: September 3, 2019
First decision: November 12, 2019
Revised: November 21, 2019
Accepted: January 1, 2020
Article in press: January 1, 2020
Published online: February 28, 2020
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Population ageing is an important challenge for developed as well as developing countries due to the downward trends in mortality rates. The elderly population is increasing worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the most common diseases in the geriatric population. These diseases involve the heart or blood vessels and include hypertension, rheumatic heart disease, heart failure, and heart attack. An estimated 17.7 million people in India will die from CVDs representing 31% of all global deaths.

AIM

To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the gender prevalence of CVDs in the geriatric population of India.

METHODS

In the present study, we searched databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed and MEDLINE from the year 2003 to 2019 to identify the prevalence of CVDs in the Indian geriatric population. A meta-analysis was conducted using the statistical software R version 3.4.3 and the random effect model was used to determine the pooled estimate of the prevalence of CVDs in the geriatric population of India along with the 95% confidence interval rather than using the fixed effect model. The random effect model takes into consideration the heterogeneity across the various studies.

RESULTS

The prevalence of CVDs in the Indian geriatric population was determined in 6586 male subjects from 32 studies and 8164 female subjects from 32 studies, respectively. The overall prevalence of CVDs in the Indian geriatric population was 36.6% (95%CI: 31.9%-41.3%). In addition, calculation of the various heterogeneity statistics (Cochran’s Q = 3836.85, I2 = 98.6%, P < 0.0001) indicated heterogeneity in the prevalence of CVDs in the elderly Indian population in these studies. The prevalence of CVDs in elderly males was 38.0% (95%CI: 33.0%-43.0%) and the prevalence of CVDs in elderly females was 40.9% (95%CI: 35.5%-46.2%).

CONCLUSION

The results indicate that the prevalence of CVDs in the female geriatric population was relatively higher than that in the male geriatric population. Policy makers must take immediate steps to prevent CVDs and improve geriatric health care services in India.

Keywords: Ageing, Cardiovascular diseases, Geriatric, Systematic review, Meta-analysis, Prevalence

Core tip: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the geriatric population in India from the year 2003 to 2019 revealed that there was a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the female geriatric population (40.9%) as compared with the male geriatric population (38.0%). In addition, the measures of consistency such as I2 and Cochran’s Q suggested heterogeneity between the studies. These findings indicate that health care professionals should take immediate steps to improve geriatric health care services in India.