How Fast Foods Impact Coronary Artery Disease Incidence: A Cross-Sectional Study

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a very ordinary health problem around the globe. CAD is affected by numerous factors like diabetes, obesity, smoking, gender, and diet. However, the association of CAD with diet is understudied in our region that’s why our study was aimed to evaluate the effect of diet on CAD incidence. This cross-sectional study was completed among local population of Rawalpindi, Pakistan in almost 6 months from November 2020 to April 2021. People were taken in our study via set criteria. Data was collected by self-structured proforma. Data analysis was performed by applying IBM SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were applied for quantitative variables. Statistical tests like Chi-square test and Spearman correlation analysis were applied to know the association, direction, and strength of study variables. Our current study displays overall high prevalence CAD (17.48%) among study population. Mean value of age for study participants was 45.42 with SD of ±8.01years. Prevalence of CAD was more common among females, faster food eaters and fresh fruit and raw vegetables non-eaters. Gender, fast food, and fresh fruits and vegetables were associated with CHD significantly with p-values 0.030, 0.0007, and 0.0006 respectively. Strength and direction for fast food and CAD association was very strong and positive while for association between fresh fruits and raw vegetables and CAD was very strong and negative with correlation coefficient +0.812 and -0.831 respectively. In a nutshell, current study indicates high prevalence of CAD especially among females, fast food eaters and fresh fruits and raw vegetables non-eaters. Higher consumption of fast foods leads to higher incidence of CAD and vice versa while higher consumption of fresh fruits and raw vegetables bring down the incidence of CAD incidence and vice versa. So, we need to create awareness among people about the impact of food on CAD and gender specific interventions for each gender to lower down the CAD incidence.