Cardiovascular health in Brazilian state capitals

OBJECTIVE: to estimate the prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health indicators in the Brazilian population, according to gender, age, education and region of residence. METHOD: cross-sectional study that used data from 41,134 participants of the Surveillance System of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigitel). The ideal cardiovascular health assessment considers four behavioral factors: not smoking; body mass index less than 25 kg/m(2); practicing physical activity, eating fruits and vegetables five or more times per day; and two clinical factors (no diagnosis of diabetes or hypertension). The sum of factors at ideal levels results in a score ranging from zero (worse cardiovascular health) to six (ideal cardiovascular health). RESULTS: considering the six factors, only 3.4% of the studied population presented ideal levels of cardiovascular health, with the majority of participants (57.6%) presenting three or four ideal factors. Women had higher prevalence of ideal cardiovascular health (3.8% versus 2.9% for men) (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: the findings of this study are consistent with the elevated risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease, observed in the Brazilian population. This may contribute to a better understanding of the scenario of cardiovascular health in the urban population of the country.