Ten-year cardiovascular risk in a Hong Kong population

Background Cardiovascular disease is a major health issue in Hong Kong. We conducted a screening program to assess the 10-year risk for the population and to assess the potential benefit of large-scale screening in Hong Kong. Method A local screening program for cardiovascular risk was carried out in a health service network with a total of 17716 participants. Retrospective data analysis for the prevalence and distribution of the various risk fact ors was performed. The data were then applied to calculate the 10-year risk of each individual, according to the European Task Force coronary risk cha rt. Results Of the participants, 54.2% had total cholesterol levels >5.2 mmol/l ; 28.7% had body mass index >25 kg/m(2); 18.5% were hypertensive; 15.1% wer e smokers; and 3.7% had diabetes mellitus. There were 35.5% of the screened population who had at least two risk factors and 10.9% had at least three risk factors. A total of 9049 individuals satisfied the criteria for the Eu ropean Task Force guidelines and were selected for 10-year cardiovascular r isk analysis. We calculated that 68.0% of the male population had at least 10% risk and 41.5% had at least 20% risk of developing a coronary heart eve nt within 10 years. Among women, 48.2% of the population carried at least 1 0% risk and 2.8% carried at least 20% risk, Conclusion The calculated 10-year risk of the population, particularly for men, is significant. Our study demonstrated that mass screening is feasible , and has the benefit of early identification of high-risk individuals, whi ch could be a reasonable strategy for cost-effective medicine. (C) 1999 Lip pincott Williams & Wilkins.