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Prevalence of venous disease: a community study in west London
P J Franks1, D D Wright, C J Moffatt
1Department of Surgery, Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, London, UK.
Objective:
To find out the prevalence of venous disease in patients aged between 35 and 70 years.
Design:
Self-administered questionnaire.
Setting:
Community study in west London, England.
Subjects:
A random sample of 2,103 patients aged between 35 and 70 years who were registered with three general practices.
Results:
1,338 (64%) subjects filled in the questionnaires. Of these, 323/1,303 (25%) said that they had varicose veins, 81/1,338 (6%) had a deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, and 52/1,336 (5%) said that they had had phlebitis. In addition, 94/1,326 (7%) had worn support stockings, and 84/1,304 (6%) had been treated with anticoagulants at some time; 31% of responders reported that they had had some form of venous disease.
Conclusions:
Increased age and female sex were independent risk factors for varicose veins and phlebitis. Thrombosis and pulmonary embolism were both significantly associated with the presence of diabetes, female sex, and increased age. The facts that a quarter of the sample had varicose veins, and that nearly a third had had venous disease of some kind at some time, suggest that venous disease may place a heavier burden on health resources than had been realised.