Cardiometabolic Risk Among Internal Medicine Specialists in Indonesia (CARMEINA): A Nationwide Study

Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are the top global causes of mortality. Internal medicine professionals are vital in educating the public on prevention, yet they themselves may experience the very risk factors they warn against.

This study aimed to assess cardiometabolic risk factors among Indonesian internal medicine specialists to raise awareness among health care workers.

This cross-sectional study was conducted by the Indonesian Society of Internal Medicine (INASIM). Our study recruited 1,568 internal medicine specialists from 39 INASIM branches in Indonesia using clustered random sampling (December 2023-March 2024). Cardiometabolic risk was calculated using atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk scores and SCORE-2 (Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation-2) Asia Pacific.

The mean age of 1,064 participants who completed the study was 45 ± 10.4 years. The prevalences of dyslipidemia, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus were 84.6% (95% CI: 82.4%-86.9%), 61.4% (95% CI: 58.5%-64.3%), 20.3% (95% CI: 17.9%-22.7%), and 10.2% (95% CI: 8.4%-12.1%), respectively. Participants' 10-year ASCVD risk scores were 6.0% (95% CI: 4.4%-8.1%) high, 18.5% (95% CI: 15.7%-21.7%) intermediate, 9.6% (95% CI: 7.5%-12.1%) borderline, and 66.0% (95% CI: 62.2%-69.6%) low. Their SCORE-2 Asia Pacific risk scores were 1.2% (95% CI: 0.5%-2.5%) very very high, 10.7% (95% CI: 8.3%-13.7%) very high, 46.5% (95% CI: 42.1%-50.9%) high, and 41.6% (95% CI: 37.3%-46.1%) moderate.

The prevalences of dyslipidemia and obesity were high among internal medicine specialists in Indonesia. The prevalences of highest risk category profile were 6.0% (ASCVD) and 1.2% (SCORE-2).