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
Processing time: 177 Days and 23.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

India is in the phase of demographic transition. From the 2011 census, there are 104 million elderly persons in India as compared with 57 million elderly persons in 1991. The elderly are exposed to several morbidities such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, hypertension, etc. CVDs have become the leading cause of mortality in India. An estimated 17.7 million people in India will die from CVDs representing 31% of all global deaths. Therefore, a precise estimate of the prevalence of CVDs in elderly males and females in India is required to assess the magnitude of the problem which needs to be addressed.

Research motivation

Very few studies are available on the prevalence of CVDs in India. The gender pooled estimate of CVDs from various studies conducted in different regions of the country can aid the development of preventive strategies. The difference in the prevalence of CVDs among male and female geriatric subjects was studied to provide an insight into the type of preventive and promotional services required.

Research objectives

The main objective of the study was to provide the gender pooled estimate of the prevalence of CVDs in the geriatric population of India. The large increase in the prevalence of CVDs in the Indian geriatric population has prompted health managers to take immediate steps for the prevention and early detection of these diseases. In addition, researchers are attempting to identify the location- and age-specific pooled estimate of the prevalence of CVDs. The main application of this meta-analysis is to consolidate the available data to determine the burden of CVDs in India.

Research methods

Secondary data related to the prevalence of CVDs in the geriatric population were collected from published research papers and then analyzed using meta-analysis in R software. A meta-analysis integrates the quantitative findings from separate studies and provides a numerical estimate of the overall effect of interest.

Research results

The overall prevalence of CVDs in the Indian geriatric population was estimated to be 36.6% (95%CI: 31.9%-41.3%). The prevalence of CVDs in the male geriatric population was 38.0%, whereas the prevalence of CVDs in the elderly female population was 40.9%.

Research conclusions

The pooled prevalence of CVDs in the female Indian geriatric population was greater than the pooled prevalence of CVDs in the male Indian population. These findings will help policy makers to take immediate steps to provide geriatric health care services in India. It is possible that an insight into the magnitude of the problem of CVDs can help to shape preventive programs for CVDs.

Research perspective

Future studies should be conducted to determine the pooled estimate of CVDs in the geriatric population in both rural and urban areas, and in different age-groups. Subgroup analysis in meta-regression can be used to calculate these values.