Epidemiology of cardiovascular risk factors and overall cardiovascular risk in people aged 40-79 years at primary health care

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death in developed countries. The control of risk factors is an essential aspect for its prevention. The best tool for setting priorities in cardiovascular primary prevention is the risk estimate. Objective: To determine the prevalence of some cardiovascular risk factors and overall cardiovascular risk. Method: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in individuals aged 40 to 79 years belonging to an urban health area, from December 2011 to March 2012. The universe consisted of 417 individuals who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the sample consisted of 111 subjects, selected by simple random method. Results: The average waist circumference and waist-hip ratio in women were 92.72 +/- 15.35 and 0.91 +/- 0.06, respectively. The patients in the age group from 70 to 79 years had the highest prevalence of moderate to high risk in the study series (94.4%). The prevalence of moderate to high global cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes mellitus and hypertension was 92.3 and 58.7%, respectively. Conclusions: There was a high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and moderate to high cardiovascular risk in subjects over 60 years of age, with diabetes mellitus and hypertension. There was a predominance of patients with low global cardiovascular risk, females and subjects under 60 years of age.