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Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on September 25, 2007
Health Education Research 2008 23(4):612-620; doi:10.1093/her/cym037
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Perceived risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in Cameroon

Paschal K. Awah1,2,*, Andre P. Kengne1,3, Leopold L. K. Fezeu1,4 and Jean-Claude Mbanya1

1 Health of Populations in Transition Research Group, Diabetes and Endocrine Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon
2 Institute of Health and Society, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
3 Institute Nationale de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U780-IFR69, 16 avenue Paul Vaillant Couturier, 94087, Villejuif, France
4 The George Institute For International Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
5 University of Paris-Sud, Faculty of Medicine, 94276, Kremlin Bicêtre, Cedex, France

* Correspondence to: P. K. Awah. E-mail: awahpaschal{at}yahoo.fr

We set out to assess the perceived risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and diabetes mellitus in an urban setting using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to collect data from different stakeholders constituting the triangle of care. Ethnomethodological analyses were done manually and with Ethnograph® software. The results showed an awareness of emergence of CVD and diabetes in Cameroon and perceived relationships between risk factors and CVD and diabetes. The awareness of behavioural risk factors was higher than the biological ones, though perceptions about them were muddled. The main drawbacks for reducing risk factors were perceived to emerge from the lack of a national policy programme on non-communicable diseases; and the low level of awareness of the need to reduce these risk factors. The assessment illustrates that there is currently a mismatch between the needs and expectations of all the stakeholders regarding health promotion and advice on risk factors reduction and an apparent reluctance by health care providers to fulfil this role. This issue can only be addressed in countries of sub-Sahara through capacity building for control and prevention of CVD risk factors.

Received on April 12, 2006; accepted on June 20, 2007


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