Increased secondary prevention of coronary heart disease benefits general practice patients

General practitioners have been encouraged to promote secondary prevention to patients with coronary heart disease. However, little is known about the extent of unmet need or how much patients could benefit from interventions. Campbell et al studied the current uptake of secondary preventive treatments and habits among patients with coronary heart disease in general practice (p 1430). They found that half of patients had at least two aspects of medical management that were suboptimal with respect to secondary prevention, and nearly two thirds had at least two aspects of health behaviour that would benefit from change. In a second study they randomised patients to attend secondary prevention clinics run by nurses or to receive normal care (p 1434). The health of patients attending the clinics improved within the first year, mostly in terms of levels of "functioning" but also in severity of chest pain and need for hospital admissions.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Secondary prevention in coronary heart disease: baseline survey of provision in general practice
Neil C Campbell, Joan Thain, H George Deans, Lewis D Ritchie, and John M Rawles
BMJ 1998 316: 1430-1434. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Secondary prevention clinics for coronary heart disease: randomised trial of effect on health
Neil C Campbell, Joan Thain, H George Deans, Lewis D Ritchie, John M Rawles, and Janet L Squair
BMJ 1998 316: 1434-1437. [Abstract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ