Prevalence of latent structural heart disease in Nepali schoolchildren.
Cardiol Young 2022;
32:1151-1153. [PMID:
34732274 DOI:
10.1017/s1047951121004479]
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Abstract
BACKGROUND
The present study aimed to quantify the burden of structural heart disease in Nepali children.
METHODS
We performed a school-based cross-sectional echocardiographic screening study with cluster random sampling among children 5-16 years of age.
RESULTS
Between December 2012 and January 2019, 6573 children (mean age 10.6 ± 2.9 years) from 41 randomly selected schools underwent echocardiographic screening. Structural heart disease was detected in 14.0 per 1000 children (95% CI 11.3-17.1) and was congenital in 3.3 per 1000 (95% CI 2.1-5.1) and rheumatic in 10.6 per 1000 (95% CI 8.3-13.4). Rates of rheumatic heart disease were higher among children attending public as compared to private schools (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.6-5.2, p = 0.0001).
CONCLUSION
Rheumatic heart disease accounted for three out of four cases of structural heart disease and was more common among children attending public as compared to private schools.
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