en Occupational Medicine Occupational Medicine Original Research Original Research <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><b>&nbsp;&nbsp;</b><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp; Background: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a major public health concern, and conventional risk-stratification tools, such as WHO/ISH (IraPEN), may not adequately capture the heterogeneity of risk profiles within the population. This study aimed to identify the underlying patterns of CVD risk factors among employees undergoing routine occupational health assessments in Iran.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Methods:</b> In this cross-sectional secondary analysis, data from 1,281 adults aged 40&ndash;79 years attending a governmental occupational health clinic in 2024 were analyzed. Core cardiovascular risk variables&mdash;including sex, diabetes, smoking, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol&mdash;were used. Latent class analysis (LCA) employing a five-class model was conducted.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Results:</b> Five latent classes of cardiovascular risk were identified, reflecting heterogeneous conditions. These classes included high-risk males without DM (population share: 0.1824), hyperlipidemic non-smoking females (population share: 0.1487), low-risk individuals (population share: 0.3011), high-risk males without hypertension (population share: 0.36), and high-risk males without hyperlipidemia (population share: 0.0079).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Conclusion:</b> The LCA-based classification identified five distinct and internally homogeneous cardiovascular risk profiles that captured sex-specific and metabolically clustered patterns of risk. This approach reveals heterogeneity not reflected in the conventional IraPEN five-tier risk groups.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Cardiovascular Diseases, Risk Assessment, Atherosclerosis, Primary Prevention, Occupational Health 788 794 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-8867-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hajar Nikbakht nikbakht.h@iums.ac.ir 200319475328460099743 200319475328460099743 No Preventive Medicine and Public Health Research Center, Psychosocial Health Research Institute, Department of Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Seyyed Amir Yasin Ahmadi ahmadi.say@iums.ac.ir 200319475328460099744 200319475328460099744 No Clinical Cancer Research Center, Milad General Hospital, Tehran, Iran Abbas Aghaei aghaei.a.md@gmail.com 200319475328460099745 200319475328460099745 No Preventive Medicine and Public Health Research Center, Psychosocial Health Research Institute, Department of Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mahdi Chinichian chinichian.m@iums.ac.ir 200319475328460099746 200319475328460099746 Yes Occupational Medicine Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran