Prevalence of cardiovascular disorders among the elderly in primary care in Estonia

Objective-To assess the prevalence of diagnoses of cardiovascular disorders among the elderly in family practice. Design-Cross- sectional study. Setting-Estonia, population aged 65 years or older (206915 per most sons). Subjects-811 elderly persons selected randomly from the lists of family practitioners. Main outcome measures-Prevalence of hypertension, hypotension, coronary heart disease (CHD), myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure (HF) and cardiac arrhythmias; differences between the genders and age groups. Results-The prevalence of cardiovascular disorders was as follows: hypertension 63.2%, hypotension 11.1%, CHD 56.5%, MI 9.8%, HF 41.4% and arrhythmias 37.5%. Women had a significantly higher prevalence of hypertension and men of MI. The prevalence of CHD and hypotension was significantly higher in the oldest elderly persons. Conclusion-Among the older population in Estonia, cardiovascular disorders that have broader diagnostic criteria and need expensive methods for verifying (CHD, HF) have a high prevalence and are likely over-diagnosed. The need for strict and simple diagnostic methods for these disorders in primary care practice continues to serious.