[The VIP Project: prevalence of risk factors for ischemic cardiopathy in an area of Campania].

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the VIP Project was to verify the distribution of coronary risk factors and the treatment of high risk subjects among the population in an area of Irno Valley in South Italy.

METHODS

In this study, people aged 25-74 years were randomly enrolled from the electoral register and were then visited and subjected to blood venous drawing. The project consisted of three phases: identification and classification of high risk subjects; treatment; follow-up (after 5 and 10 years). In this paper all data gathered during the first control (1998-1999) are reported. Data refer to 1200 subjects (600 men and 600 women).

RESULTS

The prevalences of risk factors were the following: hypercholesterolemia (serum cholesterol > or = 240 mg/dl): men 13.6%, women 18.6%; hypertriglyceridemia (serum triglycerides > or = 170 mg/dl): men 33.6%, women 17.9%; hyperglycemia (blood glucose > or = 126 mg/dl): men 11.2%, women 10.4%. The mean levels of systolic blood pressure were: men 132.6 mmHg and women 132.15 mmHg; diastolic blood pressure: men 83.97 mmHg and women 82.86 mmHg. Male subjects with hypertension (> 159/94 mmHg) were 29.1% while female subjects were 28.9%. The prevalence of smokers was 43% for men and 21.7% for women.

CONCLUSIONS

Data show some important aspects (especially when they are compared with Montecorvino Rovella Project, an epidemiologic research on cardiovascular risk factors also carried out in the Province of Salerno in 1988-1989): there is a reduction of cholesterolemia and of prevalence of hypercholesterolemia; smokers are decreasing but there is an increase in female smokers; doctors treat men more efficaciously than women; in the female population, aged 45 to 54 years, there is an increase, in unacceptable proportions, in cardiovascular risk factors.