A standardized intervention incorporating risk assessment and telephone counselling improved cardiovascular risk factors among those at risk for coronary disease.
Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in Canada and elsewhere, accounting for 35% of deaths in this country, at a cost to the health care system in 1998 at an estimated $18.5 million (or 11.6% of the costs of all illnesses). The number of people with cardiovascular disease or related heart problems will continue to rise as the baby boom generation ages.
In this 1-year randomized trial of 611 individuals, Andrew Wister PhD and colleagues found that a standardized intervention incorporating risk assessment and telephone counselling improved cardiovascular risk factors among those at risk for coronary disease, but not among those with established coronary disease.