Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Risk Factors in Primary Care

To study the prevalence of and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in primary care. A cross-sectional study was carried out at an urban health center in Barcelona, Spain. In total, 2248 patients ≥15 years old were selected randomly from medical records. The study investigated cardiovascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and peripheral arterial disease, and cardiovascular risk factors such as age, sex, smoking, high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and diabetes mellitus. The patients' mean age was 49.1 (18.9) years and 53.5% were male. Cardiovascular risk factor prevalences were: smoking, 35.2%; high blood pressure, 33.7%; hypercholesterolemia, 21.9%; hypertriglyceridemia, 12.7%; and diabetes mellitus, 15.8%. Overall, 57.9% of patients had at least 1 cardiovascular risk factor. Significantly more males presented with each risk factor ( P