Objectives  To assess knowledge of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors among a group of health screening participants and to compare knowledge between participants with high and low CVD risk.

Design  Cross-sectional pilot study.

Setting  Jonesboro, AR, during June 2007.

Patients  121 adult volunteers participating in a community health screening.

Intervention  34-item self-administered written questionnaire.

Main outcome measures  Ability to identify CVD risk factors and healthy values for CVD risk factors and the differences in these abilities between participants with high and low CVD risk.

Results  Participants demonstrated good knowledge of traditional CVD risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, and overweight or obese status. Knowledge of other CVD risk factors and healthy values for major CVD risk factors was limited. Participants with high CVD risk were significantly more likely to correctly identify high triglycerides as a CVD risk factor and to identify healthy values for fasting blood glucose and total cholesterol compared with participants with low CVD risk.

Conclusion  Overall, participants lacked knowledge of the risk factor status and healthy values for many CVD risk factors. Participants with high CVD risk may have better knowledge of some CVD risk factors than participants with low CVD risk. These findings highlight the need for more education to improve knowledge in both risk groups.