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During the period
December 1991 to March 1996 the Scottish Heart and Arterial Risk Prevention
(SHARP) mobile risk factor screening unit toured workplaces throughout Scotland.
The purpose of
the survey was and remains (a) the achievement of a clearer
understanding of coronary risk factor prevalence in the working population
of Scotland; (b) the education of that population through counselling
and advice; and (c) through analysis of the large volume of screening
data collected and additional follow-up data, a clearer appreciation of
risk factors as predictors for future events.
Data collected
include:
age, sex, occupation, social
class, personal and family history of cardiovascular disease, smoking
habit, consumption of alcohol and salt, body mass index, blood
pressure, blood glucose and total cholesterol.
Altogether 780 screening sites were visited during which 19,400
volunteers (9,850 men and 9,550 women aged between 18 and 70) were
screened.
This is the
largest and most recent study in Scotland and the first
study to include a large spectrum of age groups and common risk factors
in a healthy working population. Assessment of heart and arterial
disease risk factors over time will help to monitor the direction of
changes in heart and arterial disease profiles and therefore has the
potential to suggest ways of implementing new UK Government strategies
for reducing risk factor levels.
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