PREVALENCE OF CORONARY HEART-DISEASE RISK-FACTORS IN NORTHERN-ITALIANMALE AND FEMALE EMPLOYEES

A cross-sectional study of 2650 male and 751 female employees of the I BM company in the Milan area was conducted in 1987 to compare, risk fo r profiles for coronary heart disease between men and women and to ana lyse the awareness of risk status of people at risk. After age adjustm ent, the rate of cigarette smoking was higher in women (35%) than in m en (25%). Other coronary heart disease risk factors were more common i n men than in women. After controlling for age, 38% of the men and 19% of the women met the study criteria for hypertension, and 22% of the men and 17% of the women had high blood cholesterol. However, an analy sis by age groups showed that, although in the younger age groups wome n had lo,ver levels of cardiovascular risk factors, except smoking, co mpared to men, in the age brackets 50 or older women had similar or mo re adverse risk factor profiles than men. Of the people with hypertens ion, only 22% of the men and 19% of the women were aware of their hype r tension, and only 2% of the men and 4% of the women had successful c ontrol by dugs. Even when subjects with mild hypertension were exclude d high proportions of undiagnosed and uncontrolled hypertension were f ound in both sexes. Of the individuals with serum cholesterol greater than or equal to 240 mg.dl(-1), less than half of tire men and less th an 20% of the women were aware of their high blood cholestelol levels. Multiple risk factors were frequently present in the same individuals , especially among males and older women. We estimated that 19% of the men and 5% of the women were potential candidates for pharmacological intervention because of high blood cholesterol. Although our occupati onal sample is likely to be healthier and more educated than the gener al Italian population, a considerable proportion of participants was f ound to be at high risk for coronary heart disease. Among people at ri sk, the awareness of risk status was low in both men and women. Our re sults indicate that more resources should be directed toward educating individuals and health professionals on cardiovascular disease preven tion in Italy.