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The present study was undertaken to determine the incidence and related risk factors for coronary heart diseases and hypertension in the rural population of Kheda district, Gujarat (India). The observations from the first five years of this ongoing project (May 1987-May 1992) are described in this paper. Out of an initial sample of 750 individuals in the age group 30-62 years, who were selected by stratified random sampling, 714 persons (males = 429; females = 285) were actually studied, after excluding those suffering from coronary heart diseases (CHD). Initially, all the included subjects were examined clinically and appropriate laboratory investigations were done. A detailed socio-economic history was also obtained. Subsequently all of them were followed up and biannual clinical and laboratory investigations were performed. Cases of CHD were diagnosed according to the recommendations of the New York Heart Association. The overall five-year incidence of CHD was 25.17 per thousand persons. The incidence in males was 3 times higher than in females. More males suffered from myocardial infarction (MI), while in the females the incidence of sudden death was higher (33.3%). The average yearly mortality rate due to CHD was 2.46 per thousand persons. CHD was significantly associated with increased blood pressure (both diastolic and systolic), smoking, and family history of heart disease, and was weakly associated with body weight (p = 0.06).

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The present study was conducted to investigate the sexual behaviour and level of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases of unmamed adolescent boys from eight randomly selected villages of the Anand taluka in Gujarat. A house-to-house survey was canied out in the included villages and all unmarried adolescent boys who confessed a previous sexual experience (n = 178) were interviewed with the help of structured and pretested questionnaires. It was observed that the mean age at first coitus was 18.01 years and in over 87% of the cases a prostitute was the first sexual contact. Eighty-two boys (46%) had not heard about AIDS and 34% had no knowledge of other sexually transmitted diseases. Only nine boys had ever used a condom. The mean knowledge score about the correct use of condoms was 1.44 on a scale of 10 and it was found to be significantly associated with the economic status of the boy; the type of sexual pariner and the educational status of the parents.

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