Risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the developing world. A multicentre collaborative study in the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN)

Twelve centres in 7 countries in the Developing World (China, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Colombia and Brazil) connected with the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) each measured cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in random samples of approx. 200 men aged between 35 and 65 years. Samples of men aimed to be representative of the population from which they were drawn, but the population in each centre was not designed to be representative of the whole country. Cigarette smoking rates varied from 16 to 78% and mean cholesterol levels varied from 3.8 to 6.4 mmol/l. In Bogota, Colombia, 46% of the men had a cholesterol level > 6.5mmol/l and in another 5 communities 19% or more of the population had these levels. A body mass index (BMI) of > 25 was seen in more than 50% of 4 communities and a blood pressure ? 160mmHg systolic and/or 95 mmHg diastolic was found in more than 20% of 6 countries. BMI was strongly correlated with blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels in almost all population groups. It would appear that many communities in the Developing World have high levels of risk factors for CVD and that steps could well start to be taken now to prevent the emergence of CVD epidemics in the future