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A study was undertaken to determine (1) the likelihood that patients seen for episodic health care in a family medical center have been assessed and counseled for coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors, and (2) the likelihood that patients having an identified risk factor have been assessed and counseled regarding other CHD risk factors. One thousand five hundred twenty-eight medical records were randomly selected from all visits occurring over two periods in 1986 and 1987 to 122 residents in an eight-site family medicine residency network. Patients with cardiovascular disease and those younger than 20 or older than 65 years of age were excluded. Assessments were made of (1) smoking history, blood pressure, weight, physical activity, and dietary content during the previous 12 months; (2) family history of cardiovascular disease during the previous 12 months and in the initial patient history; (3) and blood cholesterol during the prior 5 years. Risk-factor counseling practices were examined for the previous 12 months. Blood pressure was assessed in 96% of patients, smoking in 40%, cholesterol in 26%, and family history in 52%. Ninety-six percent of hypertensive patients were counseled for hypertension, but only 45% of smokers and 20% of patients with hypercholesterolemia were counseled for those risk factors. Of patients having a given risk factor, assessment for any other risk factor occurred in fewer than 60% of cases. Patients having a documented positive family history were only slightly more likely than other patients to be assessed for additional risk factors. There is continued need for enhancing coronary risk-factor assessment and counseling by resident physicians.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Risk factors for cardiovascular disease are commonly obtained in freshman medical students for the purpose of increasing interest and awareness in preventive cardiology. What would be a normal range of values for this select group? This paper describes the major cardiovascular risk factors for 3,811 male and female freshman medical students from eight U.S. medical schools that were obtained in a standardized fashion as part of the Preventive Cardiology Academic Award (PCAA) programs at these institutions. The distributions of height, weight, Quetelet index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are presented for male and female medical students stratified by race into white, black, Asian, and Hispanic groups. The sex and race distributions of cardiovascular risk factors such as previously diagnosed hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, lack of regular exercise (three times a week or more), oral contraceptive use in women, and family history of coronary heart disease are presented. The cardiovascular risk of freshman medical students is compared to other epidemiologic studies of young adults. The use and limitations of these race- and sex-specific data on cardiovascular risk, including physiologic measurements, are discussed in the context of educational programs for medical students and house staff in preventive cardiology.