Abstract

GARCIA-ORTIZ, Luis et al. Cardiovascular risk of hypertensive people with long-range monitoring: The effect of aging (Ciclo Risk Study). Rev. Esp. Salud Publica [online]. 2007, vol.81, n.4, pp.365-375. ISSN 2173-9110.

Background: The evolution of estimated cardiovascular risk can be for evaluating the effectiveness of the different treatment interventions which are carried out on patients with regular follow-up by family physicians. This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of aging on the evolution of cardiovascular risk among hypertensive patients with long-range Primary Care monitoring. Methods: Longitudinal, descriptive study with monitoring of 842 hypertensive patients within the 34-70 age range at two primary care centers, with a quality improvement intervention (improvement cycle) during the last year at one of these centers. The main variables were age and gender, blood pressure, lipids, smoking habit, diabetes and cardiovascular risk (CVR) (Framingham-Wilson) in the real-life situation and considering the age constant in the first case, and the risk factors in the second, plus the relative risk. Results: A drop was found in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure from 11.78 mmHg (95 IC: 10.51-13.05) and 8.83 mmHg (95 CI: 8.13-9.53), respectively, and LDL Cholesterol 15.94 mg/dl (95 CI: 11.77-20.12), a rise in HDL-Cholesterol of 7.53 mg/dl (95CI: 6.39-8.66), decreased smoking habit of 31% and an increase in diabetics. The Coronary risk decreased 1.40 percent points, Coronary risk with age constant decreased 3.84 (95 CI: 3.35-4.33), having increased with constant risk factors by 3.06(95 CI: 2.82-3.29). The Relative risk dropped from 2.50 to 1.85. Conclusions: Aging may mask the effect achieved by health care in the absolute cardiovascular risk check. The relative risk could be an alternative for monitoring the follow-up.

Keywords : Hypertension; Cardiovascular risk; Aging; Primary health care.

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