Introduction:

Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide. This prevalence could be explained by multiple risk factors.

Objective:

To determine the frequency of cardiovascular risk factors in young physicians of the Hospital de Clínicas, San Lorenzo, Paraguay.

Material and method:

An observational, descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional design was applied, with non-probabilistic sampling. One hundred seventy-five young male and female physicians between 22 and 45 years of age, from the Hospital de Clínicas were included in 2020. Demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, specialty), anthropometric measurements (weight and height), cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, family pathological history of cardiovascular disease), toxic habits (alcohol and/or tobacco), sedentary behavior, dyslipidemia, working hours (daytime, nighttime or both, and working hours). Body mass index was calculated.

Results:

The average age was 30±3 years. A predominance of male sex was verified with more than half of the participants (50.8%). The most frequent cardiovascular risk factor was a history of cardiovascular disease (89.1%), the prevalence of the other cardiovascular risk factors was drinking behavior (56.5%), sedentary behavior (54.5%), pre-obesity and obesity (49.5%), dyslipidemia (17.1%), smoking (10.2%), arterial hypertension (5.1%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (0.5%) and chronic kidney disease (0.5%).

Conclusion:

The frequency of cardiovascular risk factors in young physicians of the Hospital de Clínicas was high, with a predominance of family history of cardiovascular disease, drinking behavior, sedentary behavior, and pre-obesity and obesity.

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