General practitioners maintain a focus on blood pressure management rather than absolute cardiovascular disease risk...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• General Practice
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines recommend absolute cardiovascular disease (aCVD) risk assessment.
• General Practitioners (GPs) often prioritize single risk factors like blood pressure (BP) over comprehensive aCVD risk assessment.
• Pathology services offer potential for high-quality automated unobserved blood pressure (AOBP) measurement and aCVD risk assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore GP attitudes towards AOBP measurement and aCVD risk assessment conducted by pathology services.
• To understand the role of BP in aCVD risk management from the GP perspective.
• To assess the potential value of AOBP integrated with pathology services for cardiovascular risk management.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach involving a survey, focus groups (n=8 GPs), and interviews (n=10 GPs).
• Exploration of GP attitudes towards AOBP and aCVD risk assessment via pathology services.
• Thematic coding of verbatim transcripts from focus groups and interviews.

Main Results:

• GPs predominantly rely on doctor-measured BP with low confidence.
• GPs indicated that AOBP results with aCVD risk would prompt follow-up, but their focus remained on BP management.
• Initial concerns regarding AOBP equivalency were addressed, with GPs recognizing its potential value after protocol explanation.

Conclusions:

• GPs demonstrate limited familiarity with AOBP and a tendency to focus on BP management within the broader context of aCVD risk.
• Targeted education is necessary to improve GP understanding and adoption of AOBP and its role in comprehensive aCVD risk management.
• Integrating AOBP measurement via pathology services could enhance guideline-directed cardiovascular disease prevention in primary care.