Background and objective: To date, the epidemiological studies of noncommunicable diseases in Latvia were more episodic and covered only selected areas. The first national cross-sectional population-based survey of cardiovascular risk factors after regaining independence was carried out to provide reliable information on the cardiovascular risk factor profile in adults.
Material and methods: Computerized random sampling from the Registry of Latvian population was carried out. A total of 6000 enrolled subjects aged 25-74 years were divided into 10 age subgroups. The data of 3807 respondents (63.5% of all) were included into the final analysis.
Results: The mean number of cardiovascular risk factors was 2.99±0.026 per subject: 3.45±0.043 and 2.72±0.030 for men and women, respectively. Of all the respondents, 75.2% had an increased total cholesterol level. Hypercholesterolemia was found in almost 56% of men and 41% of women in the age group of 25-34 years. Hyperglycemia was documented in 34.1% of the respondents (41.6% of men and 29.8% of women). More than two-thirds (67.8%) of the persons were overweight, while obesity was found in 25.6% of men and 32.6% of women. Arterial hypertension was identified in 44.8% of the respondents; its prevalence was higher in men than women (52.9% vs. 40.2%). There were more current smokers among men than women (30.5% vs. 11.4%).
Conclusions: The levels of cardiovascular risk factors in Latvia were found to be relatively high. The data can be utilized as baseline characteristics that can be compared down the road including the monitoring of health prevention activities.