with age: 0.3% for males and 0.2% for females 50- 59 years old; 2.7 and 2.2% respectively for 70-80 years old. Mortality for the whole population of patients with heart failure was about 10% per year [5]. The estimated prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Poland exceeded 9.3%, with 0.7% mortality rate per year [6-9]. The health care system in Poland is based on compulsory health insurance with near universal coverage of the population, managed by the National Health Fund (NHF), an independent body which contracts services through competitive tendering. Financing the prevention of diseases is part of the responsibilities of the NHF, regulated by the Health Care Services Financed with Public Funds Act of 27 August 2004. Preventive interventions are part of annually-updated prevention programmes delivered in primary health care with payments based on fee for service. In 2005, the programmes focused on CVD and COPD. In the Lodz region, with a population of 765,777 inhabitants, the NHF signed contracts for 53,996 CVD prevention interventions, for 65,400 COPD prevention interventions at the basic level, and for 13,776 COPD prevention interventions at the extended level. The contracts were signed directly with primary care physicians or with Health Care Enterprises which employed physicians. The aim of the CVD prevention programme was to reduce the incidence and mortality of CVD by 20% by the early identification and reduction of risk factors. Specific objectives were to increase identification and the effectiveness of the treatment of CVD, identification of people at risk and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The CVD prevention programme was targeted towards people 35-55 years old with no previous diagnosis of CVD. The aim of the COPD prevention programme was to reduce the incidence and disability related to COPD by complex educational, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in people at risk. The specific objectives were promotion of COPD awareness, screening and early identification of COPD, appropriate referrals, anti-smoking education, flu vaccination and reduction of hospital referrals. The COPD programme was targeted towards people 40-65 years old, current or past tobacco smokers with no previous diagnosis of COPD. The aim of this study was to determine whether there was a correlation between the primary health care physicians’ specialty and the rate of the delivered interventions contracted by the NHF as part of CVD and COPD prevention programmes in Lodz. Material and methods In this retrospective observational study, data from 2005 were analysed. The source of information was National Health Fund data related to the Prevention of CVD and COPD in Lodz accomplishment of contracts signed for the CVD prevention programme and the COPD prevention programmes at the basic and extended levels. The data included the numbers of interventions contracted and delivered by all primary care providers who signed the contracts, and the number of physicians who performed prevention interventions with their medical specialisations. Since the data were used by the NHF as the basis for payment, their quality was checked by different departments of the NHF. There were no data missing. Researchers had access to both the electronic and paper-based data sets. The rates of delivery of preventative interventions within the CVD and COPD prevention programmes by physicians with different specialities (internists, paediatricians, family physicians and physicians with or without any other speciality) were analysed. The analysis was performed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (rho), which estimates the strength of the relationship between two parameters and its tendency. The “+” symbol means that when the value of one parameter grows, the other parameter’s value grows as well; the “–” symbol means that when the value of one parameter increases, the value of the other parameter diminishes. The value of Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ranges from –1 to 1. The closer to “0” the absolute value of the coefficient, the weaker the correlation; conversely, the closer to “1” the absolute value of the coefficient, the stronger the correlation. Since the data were not identifiable, ethical committee approval was not necessary. Results Out of 133 primary health care providers in Lodz, only 25 signed contracts for the CVD prevention programme – 22 for the COPD prevention programme at the basic level and 20 at the extended level. Seventy-nine family physicians (30.74% of all primary care physicians, 95% CI 25.10-36.38), 81 specialists in internal medicine (31.52%, 95% CI 25.84-37.18), 40 paediatricians (15.56%, 95% CI 11.13- 19.99), and 57 physicians with or without another specialisation (22.18%, 95% CI 17.10-27.26) were involved in the CVD prevention programme delivery. In total, there were 257 primary care physicians involved (100.00%), including 162 (63%) females. In the COPD prevention programme delivery at the basic level 54 family physicians (23.08% of all primary care physicians, 95% CI 17.68-28.48), 104 internal medicine specialists (44.44%, 95% CI 38.07-50.81), 54 paediatricians (23.08%, 95% CI 17.68-28.48), and 22 physicians with or without another specialisation (9.40%, 95% CI 5.66-13.14) were involved. In total, there were 234 primary care Arch Med Sci 2, April / 2010 209