Background: Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of mortality and disability in developed countries. Therefore, it is necessary to increase a policy of primary prevention. The most recent European guidelines recommend the use of the absolute risk profile as a tool to identify high-risk individuals, but also underline the need for interventions on the whole population. They also mentioned the concept of opportunistic screening for cardio- and cerebrovascular risk factors.
Methods: From September 2004 to December 2008, 13 619 consecutive blood donors were evaluated to determine the absolute risk profile by using the CUORE Project score. Inclusion criteria were age between 35 and 69 years, no evidence of cardiovascular disease, 12 h fasting, and informed consent. All blood donors underwent physical examination and blood tests. The absolute risk profile system includes 8 variables: age, gender, diabetes, smoking habit, systolic blood pressure, total and HDL cholesterol, and antihypertensive therapy. The population was classified into five risk categories (<5%; 5-10%; 10-15%; 15-20%; > or =20%). The results were analyzed according to age and gender.
Results: The mean risk score was 2.9 +/- 3 in men and 0.8 +/- 1.04 in women. Furthermore, the proportion of subjects at low risk was high even in the most advanced age groups in both sexes, differently from the general population. In particular, in young and female subjects the risk score did not exceed 20%. The proportion of men at high risk increased in adulthood, varying between 0.5% in the 50-59 age range to 4% in subjects > or =60 years.
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a primary cardiovascular prevention program in a new opportunistic setting, not assessed previously. The implementation of this program is a valuable tool not only to identify high-risk subjects but also to maintain a favorable risk profile in low-risk subjects over time.