Background: the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors is well known in the general population. The aim of our study is to determine the prevalence of unknown major cardiovascular risk factors, in an apparently healthy Balearic working population.
Method: data were obtained to 3,035 people randomly selected and with unknown previous diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes or hypercholesterolemia. To compare proportions we used the χ2 test and the t-Student test for comparison of means.
Results: the prevalence of unknown hypertension in men was 20.6%, hypercholesterolemia 11.6%and 2.6% diabetes. The prevalence of unknown hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes in women were 8.3,5.4 and 0.8%, respectively. All cardiovascular risk factors except low HDL-cholesterol were more prevalent in men. 14.4%of men and 5.5% of women met metabolic syndrome.
Conclusions: there is a very high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the working population considered theoretically healthy. This highlights the important role in this field from the occupational health units to make them emerge.