Knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors among the Canadian population: relationships with indicators of socioeconomic status

Background: We examined the ability of adult Canadians to recall cardiovasc ular disease risk factors to determine the associations between their abili ty to recall risk factors for cardiovascular disease and their socioeconomi c status. Methods: This study used the database assembled by the Canadian Heart Healt h Surveys Research Group between 1986 and 1992 - a stratified representativ e sample comprising 23 129 Canadian residents aged 18 to 74. Nurses adminis tered a standard questionnaire asking respondents to list the major risk fa ctors for cardiovascular disease: fat in food, smoking, lack of exercise, e xcess weight, elevated blood cholesterol and high blood pressure. Six logis tic regressions examined the multivariate associations between ability to r ecall each risk factor with education, income adequacy, occupation, sex, ag e, marital status and province of residence. Results: More people knew about the behaviour-related risk factors for card iovascular disease than about the physiologic risk factors: 60% recalled fa t in food, 52% smoking and 41% lack of exercise, but only 32% identified we ight, 27% cholesterol and 22% high blood pressure. Education was the socioe conomic status indicator most strongly and consistently associated with the ability to recall risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The odds ratios of reporting an association of the risks between people with elementary ed ucation and those with university degrees varied between 0.16 (95% confiden ce interval 0.12 to 0.22) for lack of exercise to 0.55 (95% confidence inte rval 0.39 to 0.77) for smoking. Interpretation: People in categories at greater risk of cardiovascular dise ase, such as those aged 65 or more or those with only elementary education, are less able to recall important cardiovascular disease risk factors.