General practice -based health checks are associated with statistically significant , albeit clinical ly small , improvements in surrogate outcome control , especially among high-risk patients .
BACKGROUND A recent review concluded that general health checks fail to reduce mortality in adults .
AIM This review focuses on general practice -based health checks and their effects on both surrogate and final outcomes .
Randomized controlled trial on cardiovascular risk management by practice nurses supported by self-monitoring in primary care
Background Treatment goals for cardiovascular risk management are generally not achieved . Specialized practice nurses are increasingly facilitating the work of general practitioners and self-monitoring devices have been developed as counseling aid . The aim of this study was to compare st and ard treatment supported by self-monitoring with st and ard treatment without self-monitoring , both conducted by practice nurses , on cardiovascular risk and separate risk factors . Methods Men aged 50–75 years and women aged 55–75 years without a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes , but with a SCORE 10-year risk of cardiovascular mortality ≥5 % and at least one treatable risk factor ( smoking , hypertension , lack of physical activity or overweight ) , were r and omized into two groups . The control group received st and ard treatment according to guidelines , the intervention group additionally received pro-active counseling and self-monitoring ( pedometer , weighing scale and / or blood pressure device ) . After one year treatment effect on 179 participants was analyzed . Results SCORE risk assessment decreased 1.6 % ( 95 % CI 1.0–2.2 ) for the control group and 1.8 % ( 1.2–2.4 ) for the intervention group , difference between groups was .2 % ( −.6–1.1 ) . Most risk factors tended to improve in both groups . The number of visits was higher and visits took more time in the intervention group ( 4.9 ( SD2.2 ) vs. 2.6 ( SD1.5 ) visits p < .001 and 27 ( P25 –P75:20–33 ) vs. 23 ( P25 –P75:19–30 ) minutes/visit p = .048 ) . Conclusions In both groups cardiovascular risk decreased significantly after one year of treatment by practice nurses . No additional effect of basing the pro-active counseling on self-monitoring was found , despite the extra time investment . Trial registration trialregister.nl
General practice -based health checks are associated with statistically significant , albeit clinical ly small , improvements in surrogate outcome control , especially among high-risk patients .
BACKGROUND A recent review concluded that general health checks fail to reduce mortality in adults .
AIM This review focuses on general practice -based health checks and their effects on both surrogate and final outcomes .