The comparison of actual cardiovascular disease risks to perceptions of men between 40-65 age range living in amasya, turkey

Objective: Determine related factors and to compare with actual and perceived cardiovascular disease risks of men aged 40-65 living in Amasya city center. Methods: The sample size of cross-sectional study consisted of 400 people who met the inclusion criteria. Actual CVD risks of men were calculated using HeartScore system. Age, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol measured by blood taken from the capillary and smoking status were used to calculate CVD risk. These values entered into HeartScore, people risk of CVD in next decade has been calculated as low, medium, high or very high. In next decade, respondents were identified perceived CVD risks with low, medium, high and very high responses. They also questioned why evaluaiton of perceived risk. Results: It was determined whereas 8.3% of the males had high, 52.5% had a very high level of CVD risk. The main variables affecting actual CVD risk; diastolic blood pressure, BMI and physical activity. 13.3% of males perceived CVD risks at high level and 8% at very high. The main variables affecting perceived CVD risk; age and presence of DM. It was found that 48 % and 23.8% of males perceived CVD risks lower and higher than actual CVD risk while 28.2% were accurate. Those who perceived CVD risk at a moderate, high and very high think that this is caused by diseases that increase the risk of CVD and smoking. Conclusion: Nearly one out of two males have a very high risk of CVD. Also, one out of two males perceive their risks lower with a misplaced optimism and males with older age and diabetes cannot perceive thier risk correctly. Awareness of individuals with high CVD risk may be increased and adopt risk decreasing behaviors. Keywords: Middle age, men, CVD risk, perceived risk