Distribution and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors in coronary patients: the PREVENIR study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the distribution and hospital treatme nt of cardiovascular risk factors in coronary patients. A transverse observational study was carried out in 77 cardiological centre s throughout France. All patients with a history of myocardial infarction o r of unstable angina during the month of January 1998 were enrolled. The clinical features of 1334 patients (71.4% men, 746 myocardial infarctio n, 588 unstable angina) on hospital admission were analysed. The prevalence of smoking, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and obesity was 49, 45, 42, 19 and 11% respectively in the men and 17, 46, 63, 23 and 10% respectively in the women. The number of treatable risk factors slightly decreased in the olde st age group. The prevalence of hypertension increased with age whereas smo king and dyslipidaaemia decreased in both men and women. Obese and diabetic patients had more risk factors than the others. A little less than half of patients with dyslipidaemia were under no preventive measures (diet and/or lipid-lowering drugs) and 40% of men with a previous history of coronary a rtery disease continued to smoke. The authors conclude that men over 85 and women over 75 years of age have f ewer risk factors than other age groups and the type of risk factor varies with age. The treatment of dyslipidaeamia and smoking is still inadequate a nd should be improved.