Prevalence of non-communicable diseases risk factors among the population of rural areas of Kurdistan Province, in Iran: A population-based study by rapid assessment method in 2015

Determination of prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) risk factors is the key factor for designing any intervention program for the control and prevention of these diseases. The aim of this study was to determine NCD risk factors among rural areas population in Kurdistan Province, in Iran, in 2015.
In this population-based study, we investigated the prevalence of main NCD risk factors among 13710 adults above 20 years of age selected by systematic random sampling method from rural areas of Kurdistan Province, in the north-west of Iran. Data were collected by using a standard questionnaire. SPSS version 22 software was used for data analysis.
The results showed that 10.6% (9.0-12.2%) of the participants were current daily tobacco smokers and 32% (31.5-33.0%) of them had passive smoking. 54.9% (54.1-55.8%) used solid oils as the main consumed oil by the households. The prevalence rate of overweight/obesity was 17.2% (16.5-17.8%). Mean daily fruit and vegetable consumption and also mean hours of exercise or vigorous physical activity per week were 1.6±0.9 servings and 2.8±3.5 hours, respectively. The prevalence rates of hypertension and hyperlipidemia were estimated 8.2% (7.8-8.7%) and 3.3% (3.0-3.7%), respectively. The prevalence rats of stroke, various cancers, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression and diabetes were 0.6% (0.5-0.8%), 0.4% (0.3-0.6%), 1.1% (0.9-1.3%), 1%(0.8-1.1%), 1.5% (1.3-1.7%) and 2.5% (2.2-2.7%), respectively. Different cities of the province showed significant differences in the prevalence rates of the most of the risk factors (P This population-based study provided the real figures of NCD risk factors among the population living in the rural areas of Kurdistan Province. We recommend use of the results of this study for designing any intervention program for control and prevention of NCD in this region.