[The long-term evaluation of a project for the primary prevention of coronary cardiopathy at 10 years from the stopping of treatment. The second phase of the Roman Project to Prevent Coronary Cardiopathy (PPCC II Phase)].
At the end of the Rome Project of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Prevention (PPCC) lasted 6 years and involving 3131 treated and 2896 control men aged 40-59 belonging to occupational groups, the mean values of some coronary risk factors (systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol, smoking habits, body mass index) were favourably reduced in treated men as compared to controls. Incidence (-25.4%) and mortality (-26.8%) from CHD were also lower, in 6 years, in treated vs control groups. Ten years after the end of the project and of the treatment procedures in "treated men", a subgroup of 1013 former treated men and one of 843 former controls could be re-examined, whereas mortality data could be collected in those 3395 men who were examined at the end of the 6-year project. The 16 year examination showed that serum cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index and cigarette consumption are now lower, on the average, in former control men, as compared to that of former treated ones. The finding is largely justified by different behaviours of eating, smoking and motion habits and by the motivation and behaviour toward health problems. Coronary mortality, during the last 10 years, was higher among the former treated men as compared to that of former control men (+50.0%; p less than 0.05%). The reverse trend observed in these 10 years is likely explained by a psychological "rebound" phenomenon occurred in the former treated men and to some beneficial effects, in the former control men, bound to the secular trend which presently characterizes some living habits of the Italian population.