Background The use of statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases is associated with different benefit and harm outcomes. The aime of this study is how important these outcomes are... Show moreBackground The use of statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases is associated with different benefit and harm outcomes. The aime of this study is how important these outcomes are for people and what people's preferences are. Methods We conducted a preference-eliciting survey incorporating a best-worst scaling (BWS) instrument in Iran from June to November 2019. The relative importance of 13 statins-related outcomes was assessed on a sample of 1085 participants, including 913 general population (486 women) and 172 healthcare providers from the population covered by urban and rural primary health care centers. The participants made trade-off decisions and selected the most and least worrisome outcomes concurrently from 13 choice sets; each contains four outcomes generated using the balanced incomplete block design. Results According to the mean (SD) BWS scores, which can be (+ 4) in maximum and (- 4) in minimum, in the general population, the most worrisome outcomes were severe stroke (3.37 (0.8)), severe myocardial infarction (2.71(0.7)), and cancer (2.69 (1.33)). While myopathy (- 3. 03 (1.03)), nausea/headache (- 2.69 (0.94)), and treatment discontinuation due to side effects (- 2.24 (1.14)) were the least worrisome outcomes. Preferences were similar between rural and urban areas and among health care providers and the general population with overlapping uncertainty intervals. Conclusion The rank of health outcomes may be similar in various socio-cultural contexts. The preferences for benefits and harms of statin therapy are essential to assess benefit-harm balance when recommending statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Show less
The aim of this thesis was to study cardiovascular risk management in old age, in order to facilitate the development of age specific guidelines. In part one the current status of cardiovascular... Show moreThe aim of this thesis was to study cardiovascular risk management in old age, in order to facilitate the development of age specific guidelines. In part one the current status of cardiovascular prevention in old age is described, including a study into general practitioners__ attitudes and perceived barriers in this respect. The second part explores the incremental value of routine-ECGs for cardiovascular risk management in older persons from the general population, beyond existing information from medical records. The third part focuses on primary prevention, exploring the performance of classic risk factors, and some new biomarkers, in predicting cardiovascular mortality in very old people from the general population. It was concluded that a homocysteine level alone accurately identifies those at high risk of cardiovascular mortality, whereas classic risk factors included in the Framingham risk score do not. Next, in various age strata from age 55 years onwards, the association between blood pressure and mortality was studied. Finally, a systematic review into the diagnostic accuracy of natriuretic peptides for the diagnosis of chronic heart failure in older persons from the general population was performed, followed by a study in a cohort of nonagenarians into the prognostic value of NT-proBNP. A general discussion is provided, including directions for future research. Show less
