Background: The role of diet in the development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease is well known from animal, clinical and epidemiological studies; the influence of dietary factors is realized through their impact on body mass, lipids and blood pressure. The aim of this investigation was to study the levels of some biological risk factors: blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides and body mass, as well as nutrition, in the male population of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, in 1984/1985 and 1992/1993 (the transition period).
Methods: Two independent random samples of the male population of Tallinn, aged 30 to 54, were examined in 1984/1985 (1,890 men) and in 1992/1993 (752 men). Standard epidemiological investigation methods were used; the diet was studied by the 24 h recall method.
Results: By the time of the second survey the age-adjusted mean values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, body mass index and triglycerides, as well as the prevalence of arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia were lower than at the first survey. These data were in accordance with the dietary pattern: lower energy, animal protein, fat, saturated fatty acids, cholesterol intake and higher consumption of vegetable protein and P/S ratio at the second survey. Taking into account close relationships between many nutrients and biological risk factors found previously, changes in the diet of the population, which occurred in postsocialist Estonia in the early 1990s, could be regarded as one of the reasons for the differences in the levels of these risk factors.