Heart Disease Risk Factors and Onset of Heart Problems among the Elderly

This study looks at the incidence of heart problems among the elderly in order to examine possible risk factors of heart disease. The six heart disease risk factors- - hypertension, diabetes, alcohol consumption, smoking status, body mass index (BMI), and physical performance- - were examined in both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. In bivariate analyses, hypertension, diabetes, alcohol consumption, and physical performance all related to the incidence of heart problems among the elderly. However, hypertension and alcohol consumption do not show significance in multivariate analyses and therefore their effects as a risk factor on the incidence of heart disease are low. BMI only significantly indicated the risk of the incidence of heart problems in the multiple logistic regression analyses. Both diabetes and physical performance proved to be statistically significant indicators of heart disease in both types of analyses, yet they show different direction of effects when demographic factors are added.