[Coronary risk in the population of the Canary Islands, Spain, using the Framingham function].
OBJECTIVE
Although ischemic cardiopathy mortality in the Canary Islands is among the highest in Spain, the specific coronary risk for its population has not been estimated. This study presents the first cardiovascular risk charts for the Canarian adult population and compares them with those previously published on Gerona, Spain.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study of 4915 subjects, aged 25-74, that had been enrolled in the cohort study CDC of the Canary Islands. The standardized prevalence of obesity, overweight, smoking, hypertension and diabetes were estimated with the information obtained from personnel interviews, physical exams and blood samples. Those prevalences were used to calibrate the Framingham coronary function and to elaborate coronary risk charts.


RESULTS
The crude prevalence of obesity was 30% (95% confidence interval [CI], 28.7-31.3), overweight 39% (95% CI, 37.6-40.4), smoking 26% (95% CI, 24.8-27.2), hypertension 40% (95% CI, 38.6-41.4) and diabetes 12% (95% CI, 11.1-12.9). In most of the factors, these prevalences were higher than Gerona's population in every age group and gender. On average, the estimated coronary risk of the islanders was 89% higher than Gerona's risk (94% higher in males and 87% in females), which is concordant with the distance between both populations in the national mortality statistics.


CONCLUSIONS
The high prevalence of obesity and other factors in the Canarian population implies important coronary risks and it explains the position of the Canary Islands in the Spanish statistics of ischemic cardiopathy mortality. The use of these calibrated risk charts would be helpful to intensify the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
Cabrera de León
Antonio
A
Unidad de Investigación, Hospital de la Candelaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, España. acableo@gobiernodecanarias.org
Rodríguez-Pérez
María del Cristo
Mdel C
del Castillo-Rodríguez
José Carlos
JC
Brito-Díaz
Buenaventura
B
Pérez-Méndez
Lina I
LI
Muros de Fuentes
Mercedes
M
Almeida-González
Delia
D
Batista-Medina
Marta
M
Aguirre-Jaime
Armando
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001266:Atlantic Islands / Q000453:epidemiology; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology