RESUMEN
The quality of medical care provided especially to patients with arterial hypertension employed in three industrial plants (ZIL Automobile Works, Moscow, Mytishchi Machine Works, and Skoda Works, Plzen, Czechoslovakia) was investigated in random samples of male and female employees aged 35-64 years. The lowest prevalence of hypertension (AH) was found in Skoda Works (26.4 +/- 1.3%). A standardized cooperative epidemiological study detected a low percentage of treated AH cases and insufficient efficacy of treatment in all three plants, especially among young male hypertensives. The epidemiological status of AH in the ZIL and Mytishchi Works was less favourable compared with that in Skoda Works. Epidemiological data represent an indispensable basis for developing a scientific approach to primary and secondary prevention of AH.