Knowledge of region-specific factors affecting the cardiovascular health (CVH) is mandatory to reduce the growing burden of stroke and ischemic heart disease in rural areas of Latin American. We conducted a population-based case–control study to assess the CVH status of Atahualpa residents—a rural village representative of Coastal Ecuador—according to their living arrangements.

All Atahualpa residents aged ≥40 years and free of stroke or ischemic heart disease that lived alone were identified during a door-to-door census, and their CVH status was compared to that of a sample of residents that lived with relatives. Four controls individually matched for age, gender, education, job and alcohol intake, and randomly selected from different households, were selected for each case-person.

A total of 185 persons (37 who lived alone and 148 matched controls) were included. A poor CVH status was found in 89.2 % case-patients and 72.3 % controls ( p = 0.03). We found significantly worse levels of physical activity ( p Conclusions

This study suggests that social isolation is associated with a worse CVH in rural coastal Ecuador. An ongoing community-based intervention may prove effective to improve CVH status in these social isolated persons.