For the research, the two students – who, according to Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA), won the National Prize for Scientific Research in Medicine – had as their target audience workers from the port company Sogester.
"We carried out a survey on cardiovascular risk in workers at the port company Sogester, as it is a very productive sector and since cardiovascular diseases greatly affect the health of workers, which would consequently condition the productivity of the company", said one of the students, in declarations to RNA.
Thus, he added, they decided to carry out the study using an instrument that makes it possible to assess the risk of a worker, 10 years from now, developing a cardiovascular episode: "We decided to carry out this study using an instrument that allows assessing the risk of a worker, 10 years from now, years old, develop a major cardiovascular event such as a stroke or an acute myocardial infarction", he added.
This instrument, he explained, collects the main risk factors for this type of disease (such as cholesterol, blood pressure, age, among others) and gives points for the occurrence of these factors. In the end, the points are added and the total is obtained to estimate the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
"The instrument we use is an instrument that includes the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease and we assess the level of total cholesterol, the level of HDL cholesterol, which are types of lipids, fats, in the bodies of these individuals, we assess the blood pressure of individuals, age, sex, individuals who have diabetes, individuals who use tobacco", he indicated, quoted by RNA.
"The instrument gives points for the occurrence of these factors in individuals, the points are added and then we obtain a total classification to estimate the risk of these individuals developing one of these cardiovascular events", he added.
In turn, Áurea Patrícia stressed that they want to continue the research, but will try to balance it with the clinical space: "We intend to continue our research, but we will try our best to balance it because we like both the clinic and the investigation, we will balance these two spaces, but we will certainly continue with the investigations".
"Research helps to discover ways to solve health problems, it helps us to fully understand first, then the search for ways to solve these problems, so that's why health research is extremely important", he added, in statements to RNA.
