Author Interviews, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Cost of Health Care, Heart Disease, JAMA / 03.07.2013
Coronary Heart Disease : What Correlates with Repeat Lipid Testing?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Salim S. Virani, MD, PhD
Health Policy and Quality Program, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, and Section of Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine,
Section of Cardiovascular Research, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, Texas
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Virani: The main findings of the study are that despite having cholesterol levels at goal (LDL cholesterol <100 mg/dL), about one-third of patients (9200 out of 27947) with coronary heart disease had repeat cholesterol testing in 11 months from their last lipid panel. As expected, no intervention was performed as a response to these lipid panels. Collectively, 12686 additional lipid panels were performed in these patients. Among 13,114 patients who met the optional treatment target of LDL-C<70 mg/dL, repeat lipid testing was performed in 8,177 (62.3% of those with LDL-C<70) during 11 months of follow-up.
Patients with a history of diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR], 1.16; 95% CI, 1.10-1.22), a history of hypertension (OR, 1.21; 95%CI, 1.13-1.30), higher illness burden (OR, 1.39; 95%CI, 1.23-1.57), and more frequent primary care visits (OR, 1.32; 95%CI, 1.25-1.39) were more likely to undergo repeat testing, whereas patients receiving care at a teaching facility (OR, 0.74; 95%CI, 0.69-0.80) or from a physician provider (OR, 0.93; 95%CI, 0.88-0.98) and those with a medication possession ratio of 0.8 or higher (OR, 0.75; 95%CI, 0.71-0.80) were less likely to undergo repeat testing.
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