title: The prevalence of cigarette smoking and its relation to certain risk predictors of cardiovascular diseases in central-Slovakian Roma children and adolescents.
abstract: The objective of the study was to determine some Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk factors in relation to cigarette smoking in 174 Roma children and adolescents (88 males and 86 females) and 131 non-Roma probands (males and females) aged 7-18 in central Slovakia. In this biethnic study, 26.4% of the Roma children and adolescents (more than twice contrary to the control group) were smokers. Among the studied ethnicities, the majority of smokers was Roma (79.3%, 46 subjects). Smoking Roma have higher means of TG, Lp(a) and WHR compared with non-smoking non-Roma. The most frequent CVD risk predictors of smoking Roma probands was low serum levels HDL-C, apo A (the Fisher test confirmed a significant relationship between cigarette smoking and HDL-C, apo A; p < 0.01). The results of the research should help to develop an effective preventative health education programs focused on Roma education (who live in a higher-risk environment compared to the majority population) in order to stem the spread of CVD as well as morbidity and mortality in this ethnic group living in Slovakia.
authors: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Matthias Belius University, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. zuzana.hujova@gmail.com
authors: Zuzana
authors: Z
authors: Hujová
authors: Roman
authors: R
authors: Alberty
authors: Edita
authors: E
authors: Paulíková
authors: Ivan
authors: I
authors: Ahlers
authors: Eva
authors: E
authors: Ahlersová
authors: Drahoslav
authors: D
authors: Gábor
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Dove
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D002648:Child; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D006178:Romani People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018154:Slovakia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
chemical_list: D008074:Lipoproteins; D002784:Cholesterol