Abstract

PEDERZANI DAMEN, LM. Lost opportunities in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in external doctor's office Department of General Medicine of the Hospital de Clínicas. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2007, vol.5, n.2, pp.23-31. ISSN 1812-9528.

Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of morby-mortality in our country. In general, primary care centers fail to diagnose risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, which constitutes lost opportunities.This retrospective descriptive transversal cut research was performed to quantify non-consigned parameters in medical records of patients older than 14 years old who attend to their first consultation at the Department of General Medicine of the Hospital de Clínicas, from March 2005 until February 2006. Of 900 patients studied 64,6% were women, with an average age of 44 ± 19 years old. Doctors filling the questionnaire sheets were instructors (25%), intern doctors of the 2nd and 3rd years (35,2 and 39,8% respectively). Lost opportunities were 5% for personal pathologic background, 5,4% for HBP, 10,6% for smoking habits, 13,4% for alcohol consumption, and 61% for BMI. Lost opportunities in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases ranged between 5% and 61% which agrees with other studies. It is due to this that we should emphasize on the need of a national policy on prevention strategies for cardiovascular diseases in our country.

Keywords : Lost opportunities; hypertension; risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

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