title: [Failure of an educational intervention to change anticholesteremic drug prescription in primary care].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention for decreasing hypocholesterolemic drugs prescription in patients with low cardiovascular risk profile.
  
  
  METHODS
  Quasi-randomized intervention study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Public primary health care centres in the province of Valencia (Spain).
  
  
  METHODS
  238 general/family practitioners from 23 primary health care centres.
  
  
  METHODS
  The centres were assigned to either an experimental group that received the educational intervention (individual scientific information by outreach detailing and invitation to a workshop about treatment of hypercholesterolemia in the primary care setting with the participation of an opinion leader) or a control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The effectiveness of the intervention was measured through the monthly mean daily defined doses (DDD) from the 4 months prior to the intervention until 5 months thereafter. Mean DDD increased along the study period in both groups, with no detectable differences between them. Similarly, there were no between-group differences after controlling the initial prescription levels using a mixed lineal model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The educational intervention as it was implemented was ineffective for changing overall hypocholesterolemic drug prescription in primary care. Consequently, this intervention is not justified for reducing pharmaceutical expenditure.
authors: Hospital General Universitario de Elche, Valencia. jlatour@san.gva.es
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Latour Pérez
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Díaz Mondéjar
authors: A I
authors: AI
authors: de la Vega Ortega
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Carrión Carrión
authors: J L
authors: JL
authors: García Herrera
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Peñarroja Otero
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Cabadés O'Callagan
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Pérez-Hoyos
mesh_terms: D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011897:Random Allocation; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D000924:Anticholesteremic Agents