Results of the Cardiovascular Health Evaluation to Improve Compliance and Knowledge Among Uninformed Patients (CHECK-UP) study were recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Grover et al. hypothesized that in primary care settings, improving communication between physicians and patients regarding lipid management could increase the effectiveness of statin therapy. In the study, 3,053 patients were randomized to either usual care or ongoing counselling regarding their calculated cardiovascular risk profile and dyslipidemia therapy. The authors showed that patients’ knowledge of their risk profile was associated with significant improvements in their LDL cholesterol levels and their total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio. Furthermore, “educated” patients were more likely to reach their recommended lipid targets, underlining the importance of communication between primary care physicians and their patients to optimize dyslipidemia therapy. This paper was accompanied by an editorial by Charles B. Eaton who highlighted the clinical relevance of the study by Grover et al. He also commended the authors for an elegant study design, a high retention rate, and the use of the cardiovascular age paradigm for calculating coronary risk. Eaton also urged the medical community to conduct further research on systematic identification of high-risk patients.
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