Effectiveness of a physical activity program on cardiovascular disease risk in adult primary health-care users: the "Pas-a-Pas" community intervention trial.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is a major, modifiable, risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) that contributes to the prevention and management of CVD. The aim of this study was to assess the short- and medium-term effectiveness of 9 months of a supervised physical activity program, including sociocultural activities, on CVD risk in adults. METHODS: Multicentered, randomized, controlled community intervention involving 364 patients in four primary care centers. The participants were randomly assigned to a Control Group (CG = 104) or Intervention Group (IG = 260); mean age 65.19 years; 76.8% women. The intervention consisted of 120 min/week walking (396 METs/min/week) and sociocultural gathering once a month. Clinical history, physical activity, dietary intake, CVD risk factors (smoking, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, weight, waist circumference, BMI, total cholesterol, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, glycosylated hemoglobin and glucose) and global CVD risk were assessed at baseline and at the end of the intervention and multivariate models were applied to the data. Incidence of adverse cardiovascular events and continued adherence to the physical activity were assessed 2 years after intervention. RESULTS: At the end of the intervention period, in the IG relative to the CG group, there was a significant increase in physical activity (774.81 METs/min/week), a significant change during the intervention period in systolic blood pressure (-6.63 mmHg), total cholesterol (-10.12 mg/dL) and LDL-cholesterol (-9.05 mg/dL) even after adjustment for potential confounders. At 2 years after the intervention, in the IG, compared with the CG, tthe incidence of adverse cardiovascular events was significantly lower (2.5% vs. 10.5%) and the adherence to regular physical activity was higher (72.8% vs 27.2%) in IG compared to CG. CONCLUSIONS: This community-based physical activity program improved cardiovascular health in the short- as well as medium-term, and promoted regular physical activity in the medium-term in older Spanish adults. TRIALS REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov ID NCT02767739 . Trial registered on May 5th, 2016. Retrospectively registered.

Metabolic syndrome as a cardiovascular disease risk factor: patients evaluated in primary care.

To estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) in a population receiving attention in primary care centers (PCC) we selected a random cohort of ostensibly normal subjects from the registers of 5 basic-health area (BHA) PCC. Diagnosis of MS was with the WHO, NCEP and IDF criteria. Variables recorded were: socio-demographic data, CVD risk factors including lipids, obesity, diabetes, blood pressure and smoking habit and a glucose tolerance test outcome. Of the 720 individuals selected (age 60.3 +/- 11.5 years), 431 were female, 352 hypertensive, 142 diabetic, 233 pre-diabetic, 285 obese, 209 dyslipemic and 106 smokers. CVD risk according to the Framingham and REGICOR calculation was 13.8 +/- 10% and 8.8 +/- 9.8%, respectively. Using the WHO, NCEP and IDF criteria, MS was diagnosed in 166, 210 and 252 subjects, respectively and the relative risk of CVD complications in MS subjects was 2.56. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the MS components (WHO set), the MS components (IDF set) and the female gender had an increased odds ratio for CVD of 3.48 (95CI%: 2.26-5.37), 2.28 (95%CI: 1.84-4.90) and 2.26 (95%CI: 1.48-3.47), respectively. We conclude that MS and concomitant CVD risk is high in ostensibly normal population attending primary care clinics, and this would necessarily impinge on resource allocation in primary care.