Pattern of Cardiac Diseases and Co-Existing Comorbidity Among Newly Registered Adult Cardiac Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study at Jimma University Medical Center, Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia

Introduction Over the past decades cardiovascular diseases have emerged as the single most important cause of death and high economic burden worldwide. Low income and middle-income countries are seeing an alarming rise in cardiovascular disease. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are facing an epidemiological shift from infectious disease to non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes, and obesity. More than 1 million deaths were attributable to CVD in sub-Saharan Africa, which constituted 5.4% of all global CVD-related deaths and 13% of all deaths in Africa. The pattern of cardiac diseases is dynamic, so this study aimed to assess the pattern of cardiac diseases among newly registered adult cardiac patients who were on follow-up at Jimma University medical center. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted to assess pattern of cardiac disease among newly registered cardiac patients who were on follow-up at cardiac clinic of Jimma Medical Center from September 2020 to September 2022. Patients were selected from their clinical records by using systematic sampling technique. The collected data were entered into EPI data and analyzed using SPSS (version 26.0). Results A total of 207 patients were studied, 110(53.1%) were males. Ischemic heart disease was the leading cardiac disease 74(35.7%) followed by rheumatic heart diseases 58(28%). Most of the patients, 164(79.2%) were from urban areas, and the most common valvular lesion identified was combined mitral regurgitation and mitral stenosis (MR + MS), 23 (39.6%). Hypertension was the most common comorbidity,44(21.3%).