ABSTRACT
Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has several traditional risk factors (RF), and some of them are potentially modifiable. Aim: To determine the prevalence of most common risk factors in adult population in Talca in Central Chile. Subjects and methods: We studied 1007 subjects aged 18 to 74 years (66 percent women), living in Talca, selected by a probability sampling. They answered a questionnaire and anthropometry, blood pressure, lipid profile and blood glucose were measured. Results: Thirty seven percent of subjects smoked, 70.1 percent had a body mass index over 25 kg/m² and 41 percent had an abnormally high circumference. High blood pressure was found in 37 percent (36 percent of these subjects were unaware of this condition), 44.5 percent had hypercholesterolemia, 21.5 percent had low HDL cholesterol, 40.1 percent had hypertriglyceridemia and 26.3 percent had high blood glucose levels. Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of risk factors for CVD in adult population from Talca. The prevalence of risk factors is higher than that reported by the 2003 National Health Survery.