Community cardiometabolic screening in Slovakia: a cross-sectional study

Objectives: To describe cardiometabolic risk factors detected by a community screening programme and to identify independent predictors of hypertension and dysglycaemia. Background: Community screening may identify persons with unrecognised cardiometabolic risk outside routine healthcare contacts. Screening datasets often contain incomplete measurements. Methods: We analysed anonymised cross-sectional data from 356 participants of the Zdravie na dosah project. Measurements included blood pressure, anthropometry, capillary glycaemia and point-of-care lipid profile. Hypertension was defined as blood pressure at least 140/90 mmHg and dysglycaemia as random capillary glycaemia at least 7.8 mmol/L. Logistic regression with multiple imputation was used. Results: Median age was 47 years (interquartile range 37-62) and median body mass index was 26.0 kg/m2 (22.4-29.4). Hypertension was present in 39.7% of participants with measured blood pressure and dysglycaemia in 14.0% with measured glycaemia. In imputed models, hypertension was independently associated with age (odds ratio 1.03 per year, p=0.002) and male sex (odds ratio 1.85, p=0.016). Dysglycaemia was independently associated with age (odds ratio 1.03, p=0.017). Conclusion: Community screening identified hidden burden of elevated blood pressure and dysglycaemia. Structured follow-up after screening may support earlier prevention of cardiometabolic complications.