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- Title
The Avoid Stroke as Soon as Possible (ASAP) general practice stroke audit.
- Authors
Sturm, Jonathan W; Donnan, Geoffrey A; Davis, Stephen M; O'Sullivan, John G; Vedadhaghi, Miriam E
- Abstract
<bold>Objectives: </bold>To determine the prevalence of stroke risk factors in a general practice population and to identify pharmacotherapies currently used in management of stroke risk factors.<bold>Design: </bold>Multicentre, observational study by 321 randomly selected general practitioners who each collected data on 50 consecutive patients attending their surgery.<bold>Patients and Setting: </bold>16 148 patients aged 30 years or older attending general practices across Australia during 2000.<bold>Outcome Measures: </bold>Prevalence of hypertension, current smoking, diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia, atrial fibrillation, recent history of stroke or TIA; extent of pharmacotherapy use in risk-factor management.<bold>Results: </bold>70% of patients had one or more risk factors and 34% had two or more. Hypertension was the risk factor with greatest prevalence (44%), followed by hypercholesterolaemia (43%) and current smoking (17%). The prevalence of risk factors generally increased with age, except for current smoking, where a decrease with age was seen. The most common pharmacotherapies were cardiovascular agents, followed by antiplatelet agents. Two-thirds of patients with hypertension were taking cardiovascular drugs, most commonly angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Stroke risk factors are highly prevalent in general practice patients and GPs are ideally placed for opportunistic case-finding. There is considerable scope for improving management of stroke risk factors. The Avoid Stroke as Soon as Possible (ASAP) general practice stroke audit provides a baseline against which progress in risk-factor management can be measured.
- Publication
Medical Journal of Australia, 2002, Vol 176, Issue 7, p312
- ISSN
0025-729X
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.5694/j.1326-5377.2002.tb04430.x