Does present use of cardiovascular medication reflect elevated cardiovascular risk scores estimated ten years ago? A population based longitudinal observational study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Mette Brekke¹  Jørund Straand² 

[1] Department of General Practice/FamilyMedicine, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, PO Box 1130, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Department of General Practice/FamilyMedicine, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, PO Box 1130, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Research Unit for General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, PO Box 1130, 0318, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;

关键词: Risk Score;    Cardiovascular Medication;    Muscular Pain;    Longitudinal Observational Study;    Risk Algorithm;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-144

 received in 2010-09-30, accepted in 2011-03-02,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIt is desirable that those at highest risk of cardiovascular disease should have priority for preventive measures, eg. treatment with prescription drugs to modify their risk. We wanted to investigate to what extent present use of cardiovascular medication (CVM) correlates with cardiovascular risk estimated by three different risk scores (Framingham, SCORE and NORRISK) ten years ago.MethodsProspective logitudinal observational study of 20 252 participants in The Hordaland Health Study born 1950-57, not using CVM in 1997-99. Prescription data obtained from The Norwegian Prescription Database in 2008.Results26% of men and 22% of women aged 51-58 years had started to use some CVM during the previous decade. As a group, persons using CVM scored significantly higher on the risk algorithms Framingham, SCORE and NORRISK compared to those not treated. 16-20% of men and 20-22% of women with risk scores below the high-risk thresholds for the three risk scores were treated with CVM, while 60-65% of men and 25-45% of women with scores above the high-risk thresholds received no treatment. Among women using CVM, only 2.2% (NORRISK), 4.4% (SCORE) and 14.5% (Framingham) had risk scores above the high-risk values. Low education, poor self-reported general health, muscular pains, mental distress (in females only) and a family history of premature cardiovascular disease correlated with use of CVM. Elevated blood pressure was the single factor most strongly predictive of CVM treatment.ConclusionPrescription of CVM to middle-aged individuals by large seems to occur independently of estimated total cardiovascular risk, and this applies especially to females.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Brekke and Straand; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011