Coronary risk factor screening in three rural communities. The CORIS baseline study.

A three-community study of rural Afrikaans-speaking Whites in the south-western Cape revealed that the major reversible risk factors hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension and smoking, as well as 'minor' factors such as inactivity, obesity, hyperuricaemia, coronary-prone behaviour and the irreversible risk factors of chest pain, ischaemic changes on the ECG and a family history of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), were exceedingly common. Singly or in combination, the major risk factors were present in the great majority of the study population after the age of 44 years. The interaction of high levels of lifestyle-induced risk factors with constitutional predisposition could adequately explain any excess risk of IHD in the Afrikaans-speaking community. The almost universal risk factor prevalence in this study has major implications for any preventive strategy.