Poland and US collaborative study on cardiovascular epidemiology. I. Introduction and baseline findings.

The Poland-US Agreement for Health Cooperation has as its goal the sharing of scientific information in cardiovascular disease epidemiology between the two countries. Patterns of cardiovascular disease and identification of risk factors were investigated through two large epidemiologic studies, the Pol-Monica Study in Poland and the US Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence Study in the United States. These two studies are described with regard to methodological issues, comparability of data collection procedures, and demographic and behavioral characteristics of the two populations involved. Mean blood pressure, lipids, and body mass indices of participants in these studies are also compared.