OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the commonest cause of morbidity and mortality with an estimation of 17.7 million deaths worldwide annually. Knowledge about CVD and its modifiable risk factors is a vital pre-requisite to change the individuals’ health attitudes, behaviors and lifestyle practices. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and perception of students towards CVD risk factors.

METHODS: A prospective institutional based cross-sectional survey was done on 423 undergraduate students of university of Gondar, Ethiopia. Stratified sampling method was used to stratify students based on their faculty and then convenience sampling method was employed to select the 423 participants. The collected data after compilation was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and binary logestics regression was used to cheek association between dependent and independent variables. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: A total of 423 students with mean age of 22.07±2.17 participated. Majority of participants were male 279 (66.0%). Nearly one third (32.2%) of the students had good knowledge of CVD risk factors. More than 75% of study participants did not agree with ideas relating them to susceptibility towards cardiovascular diseases. Students from College of medicine and health sciences were found to be 2.6 times more knowledgeable about CVD risk factors than students from other colleges (P = 0.024). Similarly, Students from College of medicine and health sciences perceived 2.3 times more positively towards severity of CVD than students from other colleges(P = 0.027).

CONCLUSIONS: Students at university of Gondar were poorly knowledgeable about CVD risk factors and they perceive that they are not at risk of cardiovascular diseases. Educational intervention on the CVD risk factors and their harmful effects is necessary to make them more aware about CVD risk factors.