Clinical Investigations Prevalence and Clustering of Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease in Turkish Adults, and the Associated Relative Risks

In a cross-sectional population-based study of 3689 Turkish adults 20 years of age or over, 101 men and women were diagnosed to have coronary heart disease (CHD), and 72 were suspected of CHD. Prevalence and clustering of the studied risk factors were investigated. Among those with the disease, all but 13 % carried at Ieast one risk factor and 46 % multiple risk factors. Hypertension prevailed in 72 patients, hypercholesterolemia (?240 mg/dl) in 25 patients, and 86 men and women were current or past smokers. Hypertension was defined as a systolic (? 160 mmHg), diastolic (? 95 mmHg) pressure, or both. Those who reported to take antihypertensive medication were also considered to have hypertension which constituted the most important risk factor in this sample population in both sexes. Its overall age-adjusted odds ratio was 2.86, followed by hypertriglyceridemia (? 200 mg/dl) with an odds ratio of 2.02. In women, an additional significant factor was obesity (body mass index ? 30 kg/m2) with an odds ratio of 1.76, while diabetes and hypercholesterolemia revealed to be significant only in those aged 20-59 years, and smoking in women aged 30-59 years. Among men, smoking was a borderline significant risk factor for coronary disease, whereas hypercholesterolemia did not prove to be so. These findings, somewhat at variance with those of industrialized nations, are based on a relatively low prevalence of hypercholesterolemia in Turkish adults.