ResearchEvaluation of community health screening participants' knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors
Section snippets
Objectives
The primary objective of this pilot study was to describe the baseline knowledge of CVD risk factors in a group of health screening participants. The secondary objective was to compare baseline knowledge of CVD risk factors in participants categorized as having high CVD risk with that of participants with low CVD risk based on self-reported health histories.
Methods
A community health screening for CVD risk factors was provided by pharmacists and student pharmacists at a shopping mall in Jonesboro, AR. The health screening was planned by a student professional organization from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy as a service project. The student organization prepared and distributed flyers to encourage public participation in the health fair. The health screening offered measurements of lipid profile (total
Results
A total of 123 of the 173 health screening participants (71.1%) agreed to participate in the study. Data from two study participants were removed from the analysis because more than 50% of the questions were left unanswered. Data from the remaining 121 participants' questionnaires were analyzed. The majority of study participants were women (61.2%) and white (84.3%). Age ranged from 19 to 86 years (mean 51.1). Overall, the participants were well educated, with approximately 90% having completed
Discussion
Our study demonstrates that health screening participants can identify traditional CVD risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, and overweight or obese status. However, few participants can identify other important CVD risk factors, including low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and abnormal glucose values. Furthermore, most health screening participants could not identify healthy values for commonly assessed CVD risk factors. Participants with high CVD
Limitations
This study has several limitations. These data were gathered from a small group of participants in a single community health screening and may not represent the CVD risk factor knowledge of a more diverse sample. Interestingly, participants in this study were well educated, with more than one-half of participants having completed some college or technical school education. In addition, these participants voluntarily attended a community health screening, which may indicate that they were more
Conclusion
Although community health screenings are frequently conducted to help patients increase their knowledge and awareness of CVD risk factors, data are not routinely gathered to determine the extent of CVD risk factor knowledge possessed by patients or how much they learn from health screenings. This study shows that health screening participants have limited knowledge of common CVD risk factors and their healthy values. Although participants with high CVD risk may have better knowledge of CVD risk
Study questionnaire
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Disclosure: The authors declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests in any product or service mentioned in this article, including grants, employment, gifts, stock holdings, or honoraria.
Previous presentation: American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, San Diego, CA, March 14–17, 2008.