Cohort profile: the Hortega Study for the evaluation of non-traditional risk factors of cardiometabolic and other chronic diseases in a general population from Spain.

Purpose: The Hortega Study is a prospective study, which investigates novel determinants of selected chronic conditions with an emphasis on cardiovascular health in a representative sample of a general population from Spain.

Participants: In 1997, a mailed survey was sent to a random selection of public health system beneficiaries assigned to the University Hospital Rio Hortega's catchment area in Valladolid (Spain) (n=11 423, phase I), followed by a pilot examination in 1999-2000 of 495 phase I participants (phase II). In 2001-2003, the examination of 1502 individuals constituted the Hortega Study baseline examination visit (phase III, mean age 48.

Influence of sympathetic activity on blood pressure and vascular damage evaluated by means of urinary albumin excretion.

To analyze the influence of sympathetic activity on blood pressure (BP) and its effects on urinary albumin excretion (UAE), the authors carried out a cross-sectional study in their local health coverage area. The following variables were monitored in a representative sample of the general population made up of 495 individuals: anthropometric parameters; blood glucose, creatinine, and lipid levels; 24-hour urinary albumin, norepinephrine, and epinephrine excretion; and BP of patients with known hypertension and newly discovered BP > or =140/90 mm Hg, evaluated by ambulatory monitoring. In the multivariate analysis, only gender, systolic BP, and UAE were associated with norepinephrine levels; only gender, systolic BP, and body mass index were associated with epinephrine.

Health-related quality of life of subjects with known and unknown hypertension: results from the population-based Hortega study.

Objective: Analyze the impact of known and unknown hypertension on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Design And Setting: A descriptive cross-sectional study in the health coverage area of the Rio Hortega University Hospital, in north-western Spain, on a simple random sample of 33022 individuals.

Participants: Following a multiphase sampling, a final sample of 466 people, representative of the general population, was analyzed.