Changes in biological and behavioural cardiovascular risk factors among Russian adolescents during the transition period of the country

• Main Author: Verho, Anastasiya
• Other Authors: Kannas, Lasse, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, Doctoral Program in Population Health, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE (THL), Helsingin yliopisto, lääketieteellinen tiedekunta, Väestön terveyden tohtoriohjelma, Helsingfors universitet, medicinska fakulteten, Doktorandprogrammet i befolkningshälsan, Vartiainen, Erkki, Laatikainen, Tiina
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Helsingin yliopisto 2020
• Subjects: Kansanterveystiede; Pitkäranta; karelia*; Republic of Karelia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/312609

Non-communicable diseases, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD), account for the majority of deaths worldwide. It is well known that population health is vulnerable to political and economic influences. Russia has faced significant political and economic changes over the past few decades. The country became world-famous for its high CVD morbidity and mortality rates after the collapse of the USSR and the shift towards a market economy (transitional period). While CVD risk factors in adults have been widely investigated by international scholars, scientific evidence regarding changes in CVD risk factors among Russian youth in recent decades appears to be rather scarce. Long ago it was established that CVD risk factors, both biological and behavioural, develop early in life and are shaped by environmental influences. Once formed, CVD risk factors – especially health behaviours – are difficult to change. Epidemiological studies have shown that the development of CVD risk factors among children and adolescents follows the same trends as among adults. This thesis investigates changes in cardiovascular risk factors among Russian youth during the transition in the country between 1995 and 2013. No previous study has investigated changes in CVD risk factors in relation to adolescents’ social environment in Russia. The study period coincides with the highest CVD mortality rates in the country and significant economic changes. Biological and behavioural CVD risk factors were studied using an internationally comparable methodology among all 15-year-old students, from all schools in the Pitkäranta district in the Republic of Karelia in Russia, between 1995 and 2013. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 1995, 2004 and 2013. The total sample consisted of 1072 students: 368 in 1995 (response rate of 95%), 340 in 2004 (response rate of 85%) and 364 students in 2013 (response rate of 98%). In 1995 and 2004, to study changes in biological risk factors for CVD, the blood pressure, height and weight of subjects were ...