Cardiovascular risk factors in the Czech population

In 1985 and 1988 as part of the WHO's MONICA project two surveys of cardiovascular risk factors were conducted in the population aged 25 to 64 years and resident in the six districts of the Czech Republic collaborating in MONICA. Over a period of three years, the prevalence of smoking decreased from 46% to 41.8% (p less than 0.05) in men. Daily cigarette consumption declined from 17.9 to 15.1 (p less than 0.001) in men and from 11.1 to 10.1 (p less than 0.05) in women. Despite the unchanged prevalence of hypertension during the three years' period the proportion of population with elevated BP levels declined from 22.25% to 19.1% in men (p less than 0.05), and from 16.8% to 14.0% (p less than 0.05) in women as a result of better hypertension control. The prevalence of obesity in men rose from 18.5% to 23.9% (p less than 0.001). The proportion of individuals with a total cholesterol level over 5.2 mmol/l rose from 78.0% to 83.1% (p less than 0.001) in men and from 75.9% to 80.6% in women (p less than 0.01). The changes were favourable only in those risk factors that were actively influenced by the preventive programmes "A Chance for Three Million" in smoking habits, and the "National Programme of Hypertension Control". The authors believe that consistent nationwide preventive programmes might exert a beneficial effect on the profile of risk factors of the whole Czech population.