Age, menopause and hormone replacement therapy influences on cardiovascular risk factors in a cohort of middle-aged Chilean women.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of obesity and other cardiovascular risk factors (RF) in middle-aged women, to correlate them with each other, and to describe the prevalence of such a RF and their changes with aging, menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) in a cohort of Chilean workers.
Material and Method: In 1991-1992 cardiovascular RFs were assessed in 467 women between 40 and 59 who were not taking HRT at that time. Five years later these women were re-evaluated.
Results: Sedentarism (87.2%), dyslipidemias (71.5%), high blood pressure (13.5%), obesity (13.1%), smoking (12.4%) and diabetes (2.8%) were the more prevalent RF. These RF become more prevalent with age. In the second control, 5 years later, hypertension (20.9%), obesity (27.3%), smoking (20.8%) and diabetes (5.9%) were observed increased. Dyslipidemia did not changed, although triglyceride levels rose from 125.9+/-56.4 to 136.8+/-63.5 mg/dl (P<0.01). Sedentarism dropped to 58.8%. Menopause did not deteriorate any of these RF. The use of HRT increased during the 5-years follow-up from 3.8 to 35%, and related to its use a decrease in LDL-cholesterol and an increase in HDL-cholesterol levels were detected.
Conclusion: Middle-aged women included in this cohort have a high prevalence of RF; these deteriorate with age, but no with menopause. HRT improves the lipid profile.