Trends over time in age-standardised prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in Senegal between 1975 and 2021 by sex: an ecological study from the WHO Inequality Data Repository.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to analyse the time trends of cardiometabolic risk factors in Senegal from 1975 to 2021.

DESIGN

Ecological study of publicly available data from the WHO Health Inequality Data Repository.

SETTING

Disaggregated datasets from publicly available sources.

PRIMARY OUTCOME: Trends of age-standardised prevalence rates, stratified by sex for tobacco use, obesity, diabetes and hypertension, were analysed for significance.

PARTICIPANTS

Only data from Senegal were included in this study.

RESULTS

Tobacco use decreased in both sexes between 2000 and 2021, from 1.7% to 0.7% (p value 0.04) in females and from 28.1% to 12.8% (p value 0.04) in males. Obesity and overweight increased in both sexes between 1975 and 2016, from 14.2% to 35.9% (p value <0.001) in females and from 7.2% to 19.5% (p value<0.001) in males. Diabetes increased in both sexes between 1980 and 2014, from 4% to 7.3% (p value <0.001) in females and from 3.6% to 7.5% (p value <0.001) in males. Between 1990 and 2019, hypertension increased in females from 39.1% to 42.9% (p value <0.001). The prevalence of hypertension in males first rose from 37.5% to 40.0% (p value <0.001), then decreased to 37.3% (p value 0.013).

CONCLUSION

Our findings highlight changes in cardiometabolic risk factors in Senegal between 1975 and 2020 by sex. While tobacco use declined, rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension increased. These findings underscore the need for strategies to mitigate this increase in cardiometabolic risk factors and a consequential rise in non-communicable diseases.