Poland and US collaborative study on cardiovascular epidemiology. I. Introduction and baseline findings.

The Poland-US Agreement for Health Cooperation has as its goal the sharing of scientific information in cardiovascular disease epidemiology between the two countries. Patterns of cardiovascular disease and identification of risk factors were investigated through two large epidemiologic studies, the Pol-Monica Study in Poland and the US Lipid Research Clinics Program Prevalence Study in the United States. These two studies are described with regard to methodological issues, comparability of data collection procedures, and demographic and behavioral characteristics of the two populations involved. Mean blood pressure, lipids, and body mass indices of participants in these studies are also compared.

[Results of blood pressure measurements depending on the place and method of measurement in individuals with normal blood pressure and borderline hypertension]. / Wyniki pomiaru cisnienia tetniczego krwi w zaleznosci od miejsca i sposobu wykonania u osób z normotensja, nadcisnieniem i nadcisnieniem granicznym.

The analysis of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure measurements in 2 positions (sitting, standing) X 2 subsequent measurements (order) X 2 places (right, left arm) was performed on the basis of the Pol-Monica I screening conducted in 1984 yr. There were 1309 examined men and 1327 women aged 35-64 yrs. The mean values of 2 measurements taken in the sitting position on the right arm were used for division of the total sample into 7 categories: 1. normotension, 2. borderline systolic hypertension, 3. borderline diastolic hypertension, 4. borderline systolic-diastolic hypertension, 5. systolic hypertension, 6. diastolic hypertension, 7. systolic-diastolic hypertension. For each sex X blood pressure category the 4-way mixed ANOVA was calculated: persons as random effect and position, order and place as fixed effects. The effects and variance components were estimated and tested. The effects of position, order and persons and interaction position X persons, places X persons and position X persons X places were significant for both sexes, all BP categories for SBP as well as DBP measurements.