Evidence on the prevalence and geographic distribution of major cardiovascular risk factors in Italy

Objective: To assess the prevalence and geographic distribution of major cardiovascular risk factors in a large community-wide sample of the Italian population. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Standardized methods were used to collect and measure cardiovascular risk factors. Data were adjusted for survey weightings. Qualitative and quantitative variables were compared with parametric and non-parametric tests, as appropriate. Setting: Towns (n 193) across different Italian regions. Subjects: Unselected adults (n 24 213; 12 626 men; 11 587 women) aged 18-98 years (mean age 56.9 (SD 15.3) years), who volunteered to participate in a community-wide screening programme over a 2 d period in 2007. Results: Overall, the prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors was: obesity, 22.7% (women 18.9%, men 26.1 %); overweight, 44.7% (women 31.6%, men 56.7 %); hypertension, 59.6% (women 48.3%, men 70.0 %); dyslipidaemia, 59.1% (women 57.7%, men 60.3 %); diabetes, 15.3% (women 11.2%, men 19.0%) and smoking, 19.8% (women 14.0%, men 25.2 %). We found a high prevalence of unhealthy eating habits; fruit and vegetable consumption was below the recommended range in 60% of the study population. Ninety per cent of the study population had more than one cardiovascular risk factor and 84% had between two and five cardiovascular risk factors. There were differences among Italian macro-areas mainly for obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes. Conclusions: The study provides alarming evidence on current prevalence data for major cardiovascular risk factors in a large sample of the Italian population. Particularly, obesity and hypertension represent a relevant public health problem. There is a pressing need for effective preventive health measures which must also take into account the differences among Italian macro-areas.