One of the most important aspects of chronic care is the determination of a patient’s cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk assessment. Many therapeutic decisions are made based on this assessment, particularly how aggressive one should treat a patient to goal. A significant part of SETMA’s Lipid Audit involves the completion of this assessment. The risk assessment includes:
The Framingham Heart Disease Epidemiology Study was launched to help physicians better understand heart disease. To do this, researchers examined the lives and habits of ordinary people living in a suburban Boston town called Framingham to determine whether there was any connection between the way they lived and the health of their hearts. They investigated the risk factors that people were born with (genetic factors) and those they were exposed to (environmental factors), to see which contributed to the development of heart disease.
Since the original 5,209 participants were enrolled, their children (and children’s spouses) and more ethnically diverse populations have also been included in the study. Over 10,000 Framingham residents have now participated, and more than 1,000 scientific papers have been published from the study. Research is expected to continue throughout future generations.
The Framingham Risk Scores should be calculated on every patient who is over 20 years of age and absolutely must be calculated for patients over 50.
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