Participation in screening for cardiovascular risk by people with schizophrenia or similar mental illnesses: cross sectional study in general practice
BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7399.1122 (Published 22 May 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:1122
- D P J Osborn, MRC research fellow1 (dosborn@rfc.ucl.ac.uk),
- M B King, professor1,
- I Nazareth, professor2
- 1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University College London, London NW3 2PF
- 2 Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London
- Correspondence to: D P J Osborn
- Accepted 11 February 2003
Introduction
People with severe mental illnesses are at increased risk for physical illness, including cardiovascular disease.1 2 Guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends monitoring of cardiovascular risk factors in such patients and research into relevant interventions.3 Possible causes of this morbidity include diet, smoking, and drug treatment. Health professionals may be less inclined to manage physical health,2 and patients may be uninterested or poorly motivated. Little evidence exists about the acceptability of disease prevention in people with serious mental illness. We hypothesised that such people would be less willing to participate in assessment of cardiovascular risk.
Participants, methods, and results
We invited patients from seven inner London general practices to a cardiovascular risk assessment at their practice. One group comprised all patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other chronic psychosis (excluding primary mood disorders) on their computer record.4 We used a computer to randomly choose a comparison group twice …