A six question screen to facilitate primary cardiovascular disease prevention

Cardiovascular disease prevention at the workplace: assessing the prognostic value of lifestyle risk factors and job-related conditions

Objectives

The prognostic utility of lifestyle risk factors and job-related conditions (LS&JRC) for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk stratification remains to be clarified.

Methods

We investigated discrimination and clinical utility of LS&JRC among 2532 workers, 35–64 years old, CVD-free at the time of recruitment (1989–1996) in four prospective cohorts in Northern Italy, and followed up (median 14 years) until first major coronary event or ischemic stroke, fatal or non-fatal. From a Cox model including cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, occupational and sport physical activity and job strain, we estimated 10-year discrimination as the area under the ROC curve (AUC), and clinical utility as the Net Benefit.

Results

N = 162 events occurred during follow-up (10-year risk: 4.3%). The LS&JRC model showed the same discrimination (AUC = 0.753, 95% CI 0.700–0.780) as blood lipids, blood pressure, smoking and diabetes (AUC = 0.753), consistently across occupational classes. Among workers at low CVD risk (n = 1832, 91 CVD events), 687 were at increased LS&JRC risk; of these, 1 every 15 was a case, resulting in a positive Net Benefit (1.27; 95% CI 0.68–2.16).

Conclusions

LS&JRC are as accurate as clinical risk factors in identifying future cardiovascular events among working males. Our results support initiatives to improve total health at work as strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease.

DECLINE IN HOSPITALIZATION TREND FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES SENSITIVE TO PRIMARY HEALTHCARE

ABSTRACT Objective: was to analyze the trend of hospitalizations for cardiovascular conditions sensitive to primary healthcare from 2000 to 2011. Method: an ecological study of the tendency of hospitalization rates for cardiovascular diseases by residence, aged between 35 and 74 years, according to the main diagnoses of hospitalization, gender and age, with data from the Hospital Information System of the Brazilian National Unified Health System (Sistema de Informações Hospitalares do Sistema Único de Saúde) and using polynomial regression models. Results: an average annual decline of 5.6 per 10,000 inhabitants ( r2 =0.9; p<0.001) of hospitalization rates by cardiovascular diseases was observed. Decreasing trends for hypertension, heart failure and cerebrovascular diseases were also identified, while hospitalization rates by angina remained stable. The decrease in admission rates due to cardiovascular conditions was similar between both genders, although these rates were higher for men aged 55 to 74 years. Conclusion: the decline in hospitalization rates for primary care-sensitive cardiovascular diseases indicates, in addition to other factors, improved access and quality of primary healthcare actions, especially for residents aged 55-74 years, and also for women whose decline was more pronounced. The health team should implement actions to prevent chronic disease complications, and consequently hospitalizations for men and for angina, in order to eliminate health disparities.