Evaluation of cardiometabolic profile in Health Professionals of Latin America

Objective: To evaluate presence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) in a group of health care workers. Methods: During the X Latin American Congress of Internal Medicine held in August 2017, in Cartagena, Colombia, attendees were invited to participate in the study that included a survey on medical, pharmacological and family history, lifestyle habits, blood pressure measurement, anthropometry, muscle strength and laboratory studies. The INTERHEART and FINDRISC scales were used to calculate the risk of CVD and diabetes, respectively. Results: Among 186 participants with an average age of 37.9 years, 94% physicians (52.7% specialists), the prevalence of hypertension was 20.4%, overweight 40.3%, obesity 19.9%, and dyslipidemia 67.3%. 20.9% were current smokers or had smoked, and 60.8% were sedentary. Hypertensive patients were found to be older, had higher Body Mass Index (BMI), higher waist circumference, higher waist-to-hip ratio, higher of body fat and visceral fat, smoked more and had lower muscle strength (high jump: 0.38 vs. 0.42̊cm; p̊=̊0.01). In 44.3% of participants was observed a high-risk score for CVD. The prevalence of diabetes was 6.59% and 27.7% were at risk. Conclusion: The prevalence of risk factors for CVD among the Latin American physicians studied was similar to that reported in the general population. The prevalence of high-risk scores for CVD and DM2 was high and healthy lifestyle habits were low. It is necessary to improve adherence to healthy lifestyles among these physicians in charge of controlling these factors in the general population.