Hypolipidemic Treatments in the Elderly: The “Brisighella Study” Experience

The realization of a project aimed at reducing the plasmatic lipid level in a large Italian population improves the mean calcium daily intake: the Brisighella Study

“…The study structure includes different phases and subprojects (Menotti et al, 1994;Descovich et al, 1990a,b;Gaddi et al, 1996). It was observatioinal from 1972 to 1986 and became an intervention study in 1986 (phase still in progress).…”

“…The study design included an updating of the database on fatal and non-fatal new events every 3 months and every 4 y a complete medical check-up, nutritional habits record and fasting blood sample. After 1986, several programs started to check ef®ciency, costs and reliability of CHD primary and secondary prevention (school children and whole-population nutritional education programs, general practitioner training concerning therapeutic guide-lines, etc) (Gaddi et al, 1996;Descovich et al, 1990a,b). The two main programs involved in the current data analysis are the NEP and the High Risk Program.…”

“…Figure 3 shows the calcium intake distribution in 1984 and 1988, before and after the NEP start (P`0.002). Before NEP, the 20 ± 40% of the population had a daily calcium intake lower than calcium losses (ie`550 mgaday; Gaddi et al, 1996), while after NEP the percentage was 16%. The right shift of calcium distribution after NEP was equal for men and women and in all age classes.…”

“…From 1989 to 1994, a specialized staff performed risk strati®cation and, when necessary, in agreement with the general practitioners, prescribed lipidlowering therapy (Gem®brozil, 600 mg twice daily andaor cholestyramine, 3 g twice or three times daily, respectively) to high-risk subjects. A total of 700 citizens (all involved in Table 1 Main characteristics of the Brisighella Study in the period 1980± 1992Period 1980± 19841984± 19861986± 1992 Gaddi et al (1996).…”