Risk Factors of Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease: A Case-Control Study in Greece

Skalkidis y (Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Goudi, Athens 115 27, Greence), Katsouyanni K, Petridou E, Sehas M and Trichopoulos D. risks factors of peripheral arterial occlusive disease: A Case-control study in Greece. International Journal of Epidemiology 1989, 18: 614–618. A case-control study concerning peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) was conducted in Athens, Greece. The case series consisted of 100 patients with PAOD as principle diagnosis admitted consecutively to a major teaching hospital in Athens during an 18-month period. The controls were petients hospitalized in the same hospital during the same period as the index cases for conditions requiring minor surgical care. All cases and controls were interviewed by the same person about serveral socioeconomic, demographic and medical variables; blood pressure and blood glucose values were also recorded. Data were analysed using multipla logistic regression procedures, controlling for age, sex and years of schooling. Tobacco smoking, systolic blood pressure, diebetes mellitus, heavy alcohol drinking and excessive coffee consumption were all strong independent risk factors with eight-fold or more differences in risk. it appears that PAOD as an atheroscierotic disease with low short-term fatality reveals in more contrasting terms the aetiological importance of factors involved in the atheroscierotic process ascompared to atherosclerotic conditions with higher short-term fatality like coronary heart disease (CHD) which may also have stronger thrombotic components.