Psychosocial risk factors of cardiovascular disease in Pakistani adolescents and young adults: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE To systematically review the number of studies carried out to find the prevalence of various psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in Pakistani adolescents and young adults. METHODS The systematic review comprised key words searched through databases, such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed and Research Gate, from 2008 to 2017. Articles considered eligible were those reporting the point prevalence of psychosocial risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in the adolescents and young adults of Pakistani population aged 12-40 years. RESULTS Of the 230 articles found, 21(9%) were from Pakistani. The most relevant 13(62%) of those articles were reviewed. CONCLUSIONS In Pakistani adolescents and young adults, psychosocial risk factors for cardiovascular diseases were found to be hypertension, stress, social support, depression, anxiety, physical inactivity and low socioeconomic status.