Despite the increasing evidence that managing high cholesterol reduces cardiovascular events, many people do not achieve recommended lipid levels.
This is due, in part, to patients' lack of understanding about their risk factors and the potential benefits of lifestyle modifications and therapy.
A new study undertaken by the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), the Cardiovascular Health Evaluation to Improve Compliance and Knowledge Among Uninformed Patients (CHECK-UP), now provides definitive evidence that communicating the future risk of cardiovascular events to high-risk patients improves the treatment of cardiovascular risk factors, such as high cholesterol. CHECK-UP is the first successful study of its kind worldwide and is published in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine.
“The economic burden of cardiovascular disease is substantial to the Canadian healthcare system, but even more important are the devastating human costs associated with the disease,” says Dr. Steven Grover, lead author and Director of the McGill Cardiovascular Health Improvement Program (CHIP). “The CHECK-UP study shows that when Canadians become more actively involved in the decisions surrounding their care, they are better equipped to manage their risk for future cardiovascular events.”
Patients who entered the CHECK-UP study had high cholesterol requiring treatment as per the Canadian Working Group Lipid Guidelines. Included were those who had diabetes, established cardiovascular disease or multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The results of the study show that lipid therapy is enhanced when patients are informed about their cardiovascular risk and when they receive ongoing feedback from their doctor about the impact lifestyle modifications and statin therapy has on their cardiovascular risk. These patients saw a bigger drop in their lipid levels; in fact, the higher a patient's cardiovascular risk, the greater their risk profile was impacted.