SummaryBackground: In Brazil, population-based information on risk factors and their relationship with cardiovascular diseases in the elderly is scarce.

The high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in Brazilian adults underscores the importance of policies aimed at reducing these factors. The association between worse self-perception of health and a higher number of cardiovascular risk factors calls attention to the importance, broadness and complexity of this subjective health marker in population surveys and suggests that self-perception of poor health is not sufficient to encourage healthy attitudes.