Family Physician’s Knowledge, Beliefs, and Self-reported Practice Patterns Regarding Hyperlipidemia: A National Research Network (NRN) Survey

Objective: Family physicians have the potential to make a major impact on reducing the burden of cardiovas-cular disease through the optimal assessment and management of hyperlipidemia. We were interested in assessing the knowledge, beliefs, and self-reported practice patterns of a representative sample of family physicians regarding the assessment and management of hyperlipidemia 2 years after the release of the evi-dence-based National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines. Methods: A 33-item survey was mailed to a random sample (N 1200) of members of the American Acad-emy of Family Physicians in April of 2004, with 2 follow-up mailings to nonresponders. Physicians were que-ried about sociodemographic characteristics, their knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported practice patterns regarding the assessment and management of hyperlipidemia. Four case scenarios also were presented. Results: Response rate was 58%. Over 90 % of surveyed family physicians screened adults for hyperlipidemia as part of a cardiovascular disease prevention strategy. Most (89%) did this screening by themselves without the sup-port of office staff, and 36 % reported routine use of a flow sheet. Most had heard of the ATP III guidelines (85%), but only 13 % had read them carefully. Only 17 % of respondents used a coronary heart disease (CHD) risk calcula-tor usually or always. Over 90 % of those responding reported using low-density lipoprotein (LDL) as the treatment goal but only 76 % reported using non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol as a secondary goal of therapy