Prevalence of chronic venous insufficiency in men and women in Poland: multicentre cross-sectional study in 40,095 patients

Objective: To study the prevalence, clinical expression and risk factors of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) in 40,095 Polish adults. Method: This was a multicentre cross-sectional study with 803 participating primary care physicians. Results: The study population was mainly female (84%). The mean age was 44.8 years. Of the total population, 10% presented with oedema, 34.3% had varicose veins, with approximately the same proportion in males and females and 1.5% presented with past or active ulceration. A similar prevalence of CVI to that observed in the developed countries was reported in Poland. Obesity, the number of pregnancies and a positive family history were found to be risk factors for CVI. Female gender was not shown to be a risk factor for varicose veins. Conclusions: The relationship between the presence of symptoms and signs of CVI was high, whatever the gender. Thus, the previously described dominance of the disease in females is losing its significance.