Objectives and methodology of Romanian SEPHAR II Survey. Project for comparing the prevalence and control of cardiovascular risk factors in two East-European countries: Romania and Poland.

INTRODUCTION: Comparing results of representative surveys conducted in different East-European countries could contribute to a better understanding and management of cardiovascular risk factors, offering grounds for the development of health policies addressing the special needs of this high cardiovascular risk region of Europe. The aim of this paper was to describe the methodology on which the comparison between the Romanian survey SEPHAR II and the Polish survey NATPOL 2011 results is based. MATERIAL AND METHODS: SEPHAR II, like NATPOL 2011, is a cross-sectional survey conducted on a representative sample of the adult Romanian population (18 to 80 years) and encompasses two visits with the following components: completing the study questionnaire, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements, and collection of blood and urine samples. RESULTS: From a total of 2223 subjects found at 2860 visited addresses, 2044 subjects gave written consent but only 1975 subjects had eligible data for the analysis, accounting for a response rate of 69.06%. Additionally we excluded 11 subjects who were 80 years of age (NATPOL 2011 included adult subjects up to 79 years). Therefore, the sample size included in the statistical analysis is 1964. It has similar age groups and gender structure as the Romanian population aged 18-79 years from the last census available at the moment of conducting the survey (weight adjustments for epidemiological analyses range from 0.48 to 8.7). CONCLUSIONS: Sharing many similarities, the results of SEPHAR II and NATPOL 2011 surveys can be compared by a proper statistical method offering crucial information regarding cardiovascular risk factors in a high-cardiovascular risk European region.

Hypertension prevalence and control in Romania at a seven-year interval. Comparison of SEPHAR I and II surveys.

OBJECTIVES: To present the current epidemiologic situation regarding hypertension's prevalence and control in Romania's adult population (revealed by SEPHAR II survey results) and to evaluate their tendency during the last 7 years (by comparing with the SEPHAR I survey results). METHODS: The two SEPHAR cross-sectional national surveys were conducted on a representative sample for the Romanian adult population (SEPHAR I: 2017 individuals aged 18-85 years, 45% response rate, SEPHAR II: 1975 individuals aged 18-80 years, 69% response rate), by means of questionnaire interview, blood pressure (BP) and anthropometric measurements during two study visits. Hypertension was defined as SBP at least 140  mmHg and/or DBP at least 90  mmHg at both study visits or previously diagnosed hypertension under current treatment. Controlled BP was defined as SBP less than 140  mmHg and DBP less than 90  mmHg in currently treated hypertensive individuals. RESULTS: Prevalence of hypertension in Romanian is 40.41%, awareness of hypertension is 69.55%, with 59.15% hypertensive individuals under current treatment with a control rate of 25%. In the last 7 years, there has been a 10.7% decrease in hypertension's prevalence together with an increase by 57% in awareness of hypertension and an increase by 52% in treatment of hypertension, leading to almost doubling of the hypertension's control rate in all hypertensive individuals. CONCLUSION: Although in the last 7 years, the tendency of hypertension's prevalence seems to be a descending one with an increasing trend in awareness, treatment and control of this condition, hypertension in Romania at this time still remains an 'unsolved equation'.