'Initiative' in primary care: survey on hypertension prevalence and definition of cardiovascular risk profile in ASL 3 of Lagonegro (PZ)

The objective of our study was to estimate the prevalence of not-diagnosed hypertension and to determine 10-year risk of coronary heart disease in a random sample of individuals in ASL 3 of Lagonegro (PZ). The sample was based on the whole population assisted by 21 General Practitioners. All General Practitioners filled a form for each patient containing social-demographic, anthropometric and clinical data. The study included only patients aged 35 to 74 years, without a previous diagnosis of myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and that were not taking antihypertensive drugs (N=335). The directly standardized prevalence of prehypertension was 0.54 (IC95%: 0.47-0.59) and that of hypertension was 0.33 (IC95%: 0.28-0.38). The prevalence of both, prehypertension and hypertension was higher in males than in females, as well as in old compared to young adults. Cardiovascular risk factors as Body Mass Index (BMI), diabetes, a family history of dyslipidemia and diabetes were more frequent among prehypertensive and hypertensive individuals, than in normotensive ones. We also estimated the risk of an acute coronary event in patients whit blood pressure higher than 140/90 mmHg. The calculation, carried out through Framingham algorithm, showed that 1 out of 10 hypertensive subject had a 10-years risk of developing coronary heart disease and that males had a higher risk compared to females. Our study highlights the fundamental role of General Practitioners may play in earlier diagnosis prehypertension and hypertension in the general population, thus adopting practices oriented to healthy promotion and prevention.