Prevalence, awareness and treatment of cardiovascular risk factors in health professionals in the cardiovascular field: the protecto esh-siia study

Objective: Physicians and researchers in the cardiovascular (CV) field are constantly engaged in the promotion of guidelines-directed preventive measures, but whether they are themselves adherent to the same recommendations was only sporadically assessed. Design and method: During the annual meeting of the Italian Society of Hypertension (SIIA, October 2022) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH, June 2023), an observational study on consecutive volunteer health professionals was conducted. Participants underwent three standard sitting and two standing (1-3 minutes) blood pressure (BP) measurements and answered a questionnaire regarding demographic features, modifiable/non-modifiable CV risk factors and related treatments. Hypertension was defined as BP > 140 and/or 90 mmHg or as a pre-existing diagnosis. Orthostatic hypotension was defined as a decrease of systolic BP > 20 mmHg or of diastolic BP > 10 mmHg; orthostatic hypertension was defined as an increase of systolic BP > 20 mmHg or of diastolic BP > 11 mmHg. Results: In total, 62 participants from SIIA 2022 (30F, mean age 43.2±14.8 years) and 129 participants from ESH 2023 (65F, mean age 36,6±12.5 years) were enrolled; 49 participants were non-Italian (26 F e 23 M). 80,1% reported regular physical activity; and only 22.5% were on a low-salt diet. Dyslipidemia was the most common risk factor (13.1%), but only 56% participants were on a statin; 9.3% had high BP, of whom 83.3% were unaware; 1.6% and 16.4% had orthostatic hypo- and hypertension, respectively. No significant differences were found regarding the degree of physical activity between Italian or non-Italian participants. Italian women were more often on a low-salt diet than non-Italian women (31% vs 4% p=0.005). Conclusions: Despite the specific professional involvement, self-awareness and management of CV risk factors can be improved in the examined exploratory, international sample of health professionals.