Fracaso de una intervención educativa para modificar la prescripción de hipocolesterolemiantes en atención primaria

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention for decreasing hypocholesterolemic drugs prescription in patients with low cardiovascular risk profile. Quasi-randomized intervention study. Public primary health care centres in the province of Valencia (Spain). 238 general/family practitioners from 23 primary health care centres. The centres were assigned to either an experimental group that received the educational intervention (individual scientific information by outreach detailing and invitation to a workshop about treatment of hypercholesterolemia in the primary care setting with the participation of an opinion leader) or a control group. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured through the monthly mean daily defined doses (DDD) from the 4 months prior to the intervention until 5 months thereafter. Mean DDD increased along the study period in both groups, with no detectable differences between them. Similarly, there were no between-group differences after controlling the initial prescription levels using a mixed lineal model. The educational intervention as it was implemented was ineffective for changing overall hypocholesterolemic drug prescription in primary care. Consequently, this intervention is not justified for reducing pharmaceutical expenditure.