Analyzing Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors and Proper Clinical Prescription of Statins

Abstract

A sample of adults participating in the first 7 months of visit 5 of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study were analyzed to determine if they were receiving statin treatment, when indicated, based on their risk factors for coronary heart disease. This sample consisted of male and female adults ages 67 through 89. Data collected from the ARIC study along with the Framingham risk score were used to calculate participants ten year risk. Next, the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults report was used to determine if the 10 year risk was great enough to warrant statin use. It was found that 163 of 831 males and 213 of 1145 females were not on statins even though their risk factors suggested they should be.