Abstract P118: The Ongoing Experience of Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Implementation in Primary Care of the CUORE Project

Abstract

Background: The Italian National Prevention Plan 2005-2008 included a 10-year cardiovascular risk assessment (10-CR) for the general population aged 35-69 years using the CUORE-Project risk score. GPs were encouraged to collect data on risk factors, perform a 10-CR and send data to the Cardiovascular Risk Observatory (CRO). Aim: The aim of this study is to show updated data of the ongoing surveillance system of the 10-CR in the Italian adult population, a first step to implement primary preventive actions at individual level. Methods: A training plan for GPs was launched by the Ministry of Health. Data were collected using the cuore.exe software, easily and freely downloadable by GPs from the CUORE-Project website (www.cuore.iss.it). The CRO provides a web-platform to analyze and compare data on 10-CR and risk factors at both regional and national level. In the subgroup of persons examined at least twice a year, variations in continuous risk factors mean levels and categorical risk factors prevalence between baseline and follow-up and their 95% confidence intervals (C.I.) were calculated using methods for matched pair samples. Results: By October 2019, about 3,500 GPs downloaded cuore.exe ; about 300,000 CR assessments on about 140,000 persons were sent to CRO. CR mean was 3.1% in women, 8.5% in men; 28% of men and 64% of women were at lower risk (CR<3%), 9.9% of men and 0.4% of women were at high risk (CR≥20%). Twenty-six percent of men and 16% of women were current smokers, 13% of men and 10% of women were diabetic, and 33% of hypertensive men and 35% of hypertensive women were under specific treatment. Among those with at least two risk assessments (31% of the sample), 11% shifted to a lower risk class after one year (14 of men and 7% of women respectively). Systolic blood pressure mean levels decreased by 0.6 mmHg (95%-C.I. 0.3-0.8 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure by 0.5 mmHg (95%-C.I. 0.2-0.7 mmHg), total cholesterol level by 3.1% (95%-C.I. 2.3%-4.0%)6.6 mg/dl6; HDL-cholesterol increased in women by 0.3 mg/dl (95%-C.I. 0.1-0.5 mg/dl). Conclusions: Data demonstrate that 10-CR assessment can be an effective first step to implement preventive actions in primary care. The individual risk score is becoming a useful tool for GPs to assess their patients’ CR and promote primary prevention by focusing attention on the adoption of healthy lifestyles. These encouraging data can be used to support health policy decision processes.