Sudden Cardiac Death in Nigeria: Pathophysiology and Evidence Based Intervention Strategy

Abstract

Sudden death is an emerging phenomenon in Nigeria, a country with a burden of preventable communicable and non communicable diseases. The rapid adoption of western lifestyle, the almost complete dependence on vehicular transport as well as stress that accompany infrastructural development and processes of human development act synergistically to predispose individuals to preventable non-communicable atherosclerotic diseases, which culminate in sudden cardiac death. Health education, which teaches individuals and families in the community to value health as a personal asset and which modifies noxious behavioral lifestyles into health promoting behavioral lifestyles, is capable of preventing non-communicable diseases that are direct causation of sudden death. There is therefore a need to research into the direct causes of sudden cardiac death in Nigeria with the aim of providing evidence-based information to the policy makers for sustainable social environmental and behavioral modification that will nick this ugly trend in the bud.

Keywords: Sudden cardiac death, Nigeria, Pathophysiology, Predisposing factors.