CORONARY HEART-DISEASE RISK-FACTORS IN EMPLOYEES OF IOWA-DEPARTMENT-OF-PUBLIC-SAFETY COMPARED TO A COHORT OF THE GENERAL-POPULATION

The prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in law enf orcement personnel compared to that in the general population was stud ied by determining the predicted 10-year risk for developing CHD (CHD1 0, expressed as %) in subjects from the Iowa Department of Public Safe ty and comparing it to the average CHD10 for similarly aged subjects i n the Framingham Heart Study cohort. The Iowa data included measures o n 388 men from 30 to 64 years old, 246 of whom were measured in 1980-1 981 and again in 1992-1993. The CHD10 came from an algorithm developed using the Framingham data; it included measures of age, gender choles terol, HDL-C, systolic blood pressure, smoking habit, glucose level, a nd left ventricular hypertrophy (EGG criteria). For this group, averag e CHD10 was reported by age in five-year increments [Circulation 83:35 6, 1991]. The Iowa subjects (n = 388) did not show a statistically sig nificant difference in CHD10 from the reference population (8.9% versu s 7.9%). The change with age was very similar in the two groups; for I owa (n = 388) the estimate was CHD10 = -16.5 + .59 (age); for Farmingh am it was CHD10 = -17.5 + .60 (age). The change in individual risk fac tors with time was also similar in both groups; the per year change in CHD10 in the Iowa subjects, which was measured twice (n = 246, 0.63%) , did not differ statistically from the 0.60% change predicted by the Framingham model. These results suggest that, for The risk factors con sidered here, the 10-year probability, of developing CHD among Iowa la w enforcement personnel is similar to that found in the Framingham pop ulation. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.