title: Lifestyle counselling in primary care: long-term effects on cholesterol level.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of lifestyle counselling for low-moderate cardiovascular (CV) risk subjects in primary care.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective comparison of baseline vs post-intervention, and comparison of enrolled patients vs control subjects extracted from a large primary care database.
  
  
  METHODS
  94 general practices in Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  All the 20-70-year-old hypercholesterolaemic subjects who did not qualify for statin treatment according to the guidelines and who were seen on 12 predetermined working days; 713 patients; 94 general practitioners.
  
  
  METHODS
  Short (5-10 min) educational intervention (qualitative dietary advice, encouraging walking or other aerobic physical activities); handing out simple dietetic advice at physician discretion.
  
  
  METHODS
  Total cholesterol level and global CV risk calculated according to the Framingham equation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total cholesterol and global CV risk (10 years) decreased by 0.31 mmol/l (p < 0.0001, 95% CI 0.23-0.40) and 1.35% (p < 0.01, 95% CI -1.73 to -0.97), respectively, after a 54-month follow-up. Enrolled patients showed a greater total cholesterol decrease than control patients: 2.24% (p < 0.05, 95% CI 0.58-3.91%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A simple, office-based, long-term, lifestyle counselling programme produces a small, but clinically significant reduction of total cholesterol and of global CV risk. This result should encourage GPs to systematically offer simple, unstructured lifestyle counselling to all their patients.
authors: Italian College of General Practitioners, Florence, Italy.
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Filippi
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Tedeschi
authors: Damiano
authors: D
authors: Parretti
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Ricci
authors: Patrizia
authors: P
authors: Morelli
authors: Piero
authors: P
authors: Grilli
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Rossi
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Innocenti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000628:therapy; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol