The MONICA - Latina area project started in 1982 as part of the international project MONICA - WHO - Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease aimed at studying the temporal trends of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors. The wide geographical extension of the Area, consisting of the province of Latina and the province of Rome, did not allow to examine a statistical sample completely randomized and representative of the Area itself. Therefore, an aggregation of selected clusters was used as representatives of a series of sub-areas, each corresponding to one or two local health units. Between 1982 and 1987 a sample of 1724 people aged 25-69 years was examined, stratified by age and sex, residing in the following municipalities: Latina, Cori, Campodimele, Gaeta, Nettuno, Lenola, Albano. Those invited to the screening were randomly selected from the electoral lists. In 1999 a review was carried out on the survivors of the province of Latina following the same procedures and methodologies adopted in the Oec survey 1998-2002 which included the collection of blood samples stored in the biobank at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

Follow-up data until 2004 of total and cause mortality and fatal and non-fatal coronary and cerebrovascular events validated with MONICA diagnostic criteria are available.

• Population sample: cohort of general population enlisted in municipalities in central Italy, 1724 men and women aged 25-69 years.
• Base line and review (year): 1982-87; 1998.
• Biological sample collection (year): 1999.
• Data collected at baseline: socio-demographic characteristics; lifestyles (smoking habit); risk factors (blood pressure, body mass index, total and HDL cholesterol, thiocyanatemia).
• Data collected at the review: socio-demographic characteristics; lifestyles (smoking habit, physical activity); risk factors (blood pressure, heart rate, ECG read according to Minnesota code, body mass index, total cholesterolemia, glycaemia); drugs; history of cardiovascular diseases (previous myocardial infarction, stroke, angina pectoris, intermittens claudication, atrial fibrillation, left ventricular hypertrophy, previous aortocoronary bypass surgery or revascularization, transient ischemic attack - TIA).
• Biological samples: N=800, serum, plasma, buffy coat, emazie.
• Follow-up data: total and cause mortality; fatal and non-fatal coronary and cerebrovascular events validated with MONICA diagnostic criteria; available until 2004.

Publications:

• Simona Giampaoli. Italy-Country Coordinating Centre. In: MONICA Monograph and Multimedia Sourcebook. Tunstall-Pedoe H (ed) WHO, Geneva, 2003; p 110.
• Fazio S, Sidoli A, Vivenzio A, Maietta A, Giampaoli S, Menotti A, Antonimi R, Urbinati GC, Baralle FE, Ricci G. A form of familial hypobetalipoproteinemia not due to a mutation in the apolipoprotein B gene. Journal of Internal Medicine 1991;229:41-7.
• Giampaoli S, Menotti A, Cannatelli P, Cesana G, Ferrario M, Forte E, Maietta A, Righetti G. Mortality and coronary events in two Italian MONICA Areas: Area Latina and Area Brianza. Acta Medica Scandinavica 1988; Suppl. 728:67-72.
• Giampaoli S, Menotti A, Morisi G, Righetti G, Verdecchia A e il Gruppo di Ricerca del Progetto MONICA-Area Latina. Distribuzione di alcuni fattori di rischio cardiovascolare nell'Area Latina Monitoraggio Malattie Cardiovascolari. Rivista di Cardiologia Preventiva e Riabilitativa 1987;5:15-22.