Abstract:
: To create an 'urbanicity' scale adapted from a previously
validated urbanicity scale and examine associations between urbanisation
measured on this scale and chronic disease risk in Sri Lanka. Methods:
Urbanisation was quantified using Allender et al., (2010) tool comprising a
composite score based on seven components. This tool was administered to all
100 clusters covered by the Sri Lanka Diabetes and Cardiovascular study. Seven
out of nine provinces were selected (North and East provinces excluded). Two
stage random cluster sampling was used to select a sample of 5000 from 100
clusters. The area level score for each cluster was assigned to the 4485 individual
participants. Results: The mean urbanicity score was 22.08 (SD= 8.4) on a range
from 11 to 46. Clusters were allocated into 3 groups according to the urbanicity
score low, middle and high. For dichotomous outcomes a significant difference
between the levels of urbanisation and disease risk was observed in body mass
index (BMI) of more than 23 kgm-2(OR1.3, p<0.05), diabetes mellitus (OR 1.4,
p<0.05), physical inactivity (OR 1.7, p<0.05) and presence of ECG changes (OR
1.5, p<0.05).A difference between the levels of urbanisation and disease risk was
observed for females in current drinking (OR 3.5, p<0.05), BMI > 23 kgm-2(OR
1.5, p<0.05), diabetes mellitus (OR1.4 p<0.05)and physical inactivity (OR 1.5,
p<0.05). Conclusions: An increase in prevalence of several risk factors for noncommunicable diseases is associated with an increased level of urbanisation.
Identifying possible strategies for intervention could benefit from an objective
measure of urbanisation.
