Cardiovascular risk factor levels in a lower middle-class community in Ankara, Turkey.

Study Objective: To assess the prevalence of risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) in a lower middle-class urban community of Turkey.

Design: Cross-sectional study in an age- and sex-stratified random community sample with equal sample size per stratum. Direct age-standardization using the standard world population to allow international comparison of findings. Logistic regression modelling to identify risk factors for obesity.

Setting: Gülveren, a residential area in Ankara, total population 23,000 persons.

Participants: A total of 1672 adults aged 25-64 years and resident in the study community were interviewed, 1272 (76.1%) of those came for physical examination.

Main Results: The age-standardized prevalence of hypertension according to WHO MONICA criteria was 18.6% (95% confidence interval: 16.1-21.1%) among women and 12.3% (9.7-14.9%) among men; of obesity (body mass index, BMI > or =30 kg/m2) 51.0% (47.6-54.3%) among women and 15.1% (12.0-18.2%) among men; of current smoking 20.1% (17.5-22.6%) among women and 64.8% (61.4-68.2%) among men; of hypercholesterolaemia 20.1% (17.4-22.9%) among women and 13.8% (10.8-16.8%) among men; and of low high density lipoprotein (HDL) 48.4% (44.8-52.1%) among women and 40.6% (36.0-45.2%) among men. In the regression model, age, female sex, non- and ex-smoking were associated with obesity.

Conclusions: The prevalence of smoking, obesity and low HDL is high in this urban, lower middle-class population, even in comparison with industrialized countries. Unexpectedly, women have less favourable CHD risk profiles than men, except for smoking. Preventive action should be community-wide and address the common risk factors simultaneously to avoid replacement effects such as becoming obese after quitting smoking.