Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in Older Adults

Running head: ASSESSMENT TASK 3
What are the risk-factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in older people?
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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ASSESSMENT TASK 3
Significance of the study
According to the Australian Government Department of Health (2016), cardiovascular
disease is the leading cause of death and disease burden in Australia. The total number of
people who are living with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is increasing gradually. According
to the reports during the tenure of 2014 to 2015, 4.2 million Australian adults are reported to
be suffering from CVD. Of them 1.2 million people are detected with complex CVD
condition like stroke and heart disease and 2.6 million adult Australian are reported of having
hypertension and 430,000 have indicated of having heart attack at certain point of time
(Australian Government Department of Health, 2016). The research conducted by Halter et
al. (2014), stated that prevalence of CVD increases with age driven in certain parts through
an absolute rise in the incidence of CVD among adults who are over 65-year of age.
However, the exact mechanisms and the associated risk factor underlying the age-associated
increase in risk of CVD among older adults remain poorly understood. Proper analysis of the
risk factor behind the CVD development among the older adults will help frame proper
interventions before hand and thereby helping to promote health related quality of life of the
those individuals (Halter et al., 2014; Afilalo et al., 2014).
Key terms
Cardiovascular disease: This is the type of heart disease which leads to malfunction of the
heart due to the damage of the arteries
Hypertension: It is the long-term condition where the blood pressure of the arteries is
persistently elevated
Obesity: Again of uncontrollable body fat is defined as obesity

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ASSESSMENT TASK 3
Type 2 Diabetes mellitus: Lifestyle disease common among older adults which is insulin
resistance and is characterized by high level of blood glucose
Question for literature review
What are the risk-factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in older people?
Search strategy
The online search of the literary articles through electronic database was done in
Medline, CINHAL and Scopus. These databases were selected because these are available
from the University of Wollongong Library. Based in the scope of the research question, the
election of the keywords was done in order to increase the number of hits of relevant search
(Parahoo, 2014). The main keywords which were use for the search of the scholarly articles
online are highlighted below:
Keyword 1 Boolean
Operator
Keyword 2 Boolean
Operator
Keyword 3
Cardiovascular
disease
AND Older adults AND Risk Factor
Boolean
Operator
OR OR
Heart disease Elderly
Table: Combination of Keywords Used
Source: Created by author
The Boolean search operators (AND/OR) were use in order to combine the keywords
and to perform various permutation and combination with keywords. According to Chaudhuri

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ASSESSMENT TASK 3
et al. (2014), use of Boolean operators help to refine the search results. The main inclusion
criteria which were selected for the search include papers which are published on or after
2014 and communicated in English. The filter of 2014 to 2018 was chosen in order to focus
on the latest progress in the research in CVD. The main exclusion criterion was the papers
which were published before 2014. Other exclusion criteria include studies conducted over
young adults or adolescence.
The total number of articles selected after the use of keywords 147
Number of redundant articles 40
Number of articles omitted after title scrutiny 50
Number of articles omitted after abstract scrutiny 30
Number of articles omitted after fill-text analysis 20
Final article selected 10
Table: Search statistics
Source: Created by author
Summary of evidence (600)
The analysis of the articles which were retrieved through electronic database
highlighted three potential factors which increases the risk of developing cardiovascular
disease among the older adults and this include (a) Type 2 Diabetes, (b) High blood pressure
or hypertension and (c) Obesity
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM)
According to Aune, Norat, Leitzmann, Tonstad and Vatten (2015), CVD is a common
co-morbidity among the older adults with T2DM. In this domain, Einarson, Acs, Ludwig and