[Blood pressure dynamics and prognostication of hypertension: 20-year follow-up of children's cohort].

Aim: To track dynamics of blood pressure (BP) from childhood to young maturity and to determine predictors of hypertension.

Methods: School children (n=1082) were examined in a framework of an international program on juvenile hypertension in 1976-1977. Samples of this initial cohort were reexamined in 1988 (n=444) and 1997 (n=505).

[Improving the organizational forms of early detection of arterial hypertension].

Within scientific and practical integral programme of chronic noninfectious diseases prevention and control scientifically substantiated prevention procedures are being developed and introduced into applied public health with the object of reducing morbidity and mortality in the republic from leading non-infectious diseases. Proceeding from the assumption that each fifth or sixth adult inhabitant of the republic has elevated arterial blood pressure and during recent years the indices of effectively controlled arterial hypertension are not improving, the search for new forms of arterial hypertension control is quite timely. The results of work of the prevention unit established at the regional department store suggests great opportunities for increasing the volume of screening for arterial hypertension, increasing population's awareness of the necessity of arterial hypertension correction.

[Implementation of an integrated program of prevention of chronic nonspecific diseases in the Kaĭshiador region of the Lithuanian SSR].

An integrated prevention programme of chronic noncommunicable diseases (CND) was started by the Lithuanian SSR in 1983. Improvement of population's health status due to primary preventive activities aimed at prevention of risk factors' development and correction was defined as the basic long-term goal of the programme. Organizational aspects of the integrated programme carried out in the Kaishyador Region of the Lithuanian SSR were described.

[Use of subjective evaluations of growth and body weight in conducting epidemiological research].

Population awareness of their parameters of height and body mass was studied on a representative random population of the Lithuanian SSR. Statistical analysis showed great awareness of the population of the Republic of these parameters permitting the use of the answers of the study population for the determination of excess body mass. However, since the interview method to determine excess body mass is entirely dependent on the awareness of the population of a given district, it can be used only after preliminary epidemiological surveys.

[Physicians' knowledge on the questions of primary prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic noninfectious diseases].

The attitude of physicians to the problems of primary prevention, their knowledge of general risk factors (RF) of chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCD) and the presence of RF among physicians were studied using the questionnaire method. Altogether 275 physicians from 5 rural areas were interviewed within the framework of the Integrated Program on CNCD Prevention in the Lithuanian SSR, i. e.

[Incidence of risk factors for chronic noninfectious diseases among the population of 2 rural therapeutic districts in the Lithuanian SSR and the knowledge of the inhabitants of the presence of their risk factors].

During examination of the adult population of two rural communities: 1558 inhabitants of a settlement of Salantai and 1713 inhabitants of a settlement of Merkine their arterial pressure was measured and they were interviewed. A high prevalence of risk factors of chronic noncommunicable diseases was established. Arterial hypertension was detected almost in 1/3 of the examined population, 50% of the male population smoked, 40.

[Attitude to health problems of men and women participating in prophylactic research].

An attitude to prophylaxis, health, physicians and harmful habits was studied in the random sample of 7836 males and females aged 25 to 69 in Kaunas within the integrated program of prophylaxis of chronic noncommunicable diseases. Women, as opposed to men, showed a tendency to a less optimistic assessment of general prophylactic measures and more often pointed to insufficient care of their health. Women take a more positive attitude to the necessity of changes in their diet and raising physical activity to protect health.

[Risk factors in chronic noninfectious diseases among the population of the Lithuanian SSR].

Prevalence of risk factors (RF) for chronic noncommunicable diseases (CND) such as hypertension, overweight and smoking among random samples of the representative population of various age groups in the Lithuanian SSR was considered. A total of 12126 males and females were examined. CND risk factors were found in all age groups without significant differences among separate administrative areas of the republic.

[Experimental prophylactic and prospective epidemiological studies of ischemic heart disease in Kaunas].

The authors report on the data of two epidemiological investigations of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) that were undertaken in Kaunas (Kaunas-Rotterdam Intervention Study 1972 - 1974) to study the efficacy of the multifactorial prevention of IHD. The comparison of the screening data of representative selections in men 45-59 years no significant spread of IHD and its risk factors have been found. On the strength of the data of prospective observation of selection of the first investigation a statistically significant relationship between the risk factors and the spread of the stenosing atherosclerosis in the coronaries have been recorded.

[Division of the 45- to 59-year-old male population into groups depending on the risk factors in a prophylactic study of ischemic heart disease].

A prospective study was conducted from March 1972 to November 1976 in a group of Kaunas male population ranging in age from 45 to 59 years. At the beginning of the study it consisted of 3,553 individuals. They were divided into groups of low, moderate, and high risk according to the presence of a risk factor (hypertension, hypercholesteremia, impaired glucose tolerance test) and a pathologic condition.