title: Evaluation of the Healthy LifeCheck programme: a vascular risk assessment service for community pharmacies in Leicester city, UK.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally. Vascular risk assessment is recognized as playing a key role in reducing premature CVD-related morbidity and mortality. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a pharmacy-led risk assessment service in Leicester City, UK.
  
  
  METHODS
  The vascular risk assessment was offered opportunistically to individuals between 40 and 70 years without any prior diagnosis of CVD on attending their community pharmacist. Individuals were risk stratified using the Framingham score and those classified as high risk were referred to their general practitioner (GP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 2521 individuals were recruited from 39 pharmacies consisting of 1059 (42%) males, 1696 (67%) South Asians and 199 (7.9%) individuals not registered with a GP. A total of 462 (18%) individuals were referred to primary care and 52.6% of a representative subset were subsequently recorded as having attended an appointment with their GP; diagnoses and treatments commenced were recorded.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cardiovascular risk assessment led by community pharmacies can successfully assess people from large, multi-ethnic UK populations and identify those at high cardiovascular risk or with undiagnosed cardiovascular disease. The service may improve rates of assessments undertaken by individuals who do not access health care through traditional routes.
authors.affiliation: Leicester Diabetes Centre, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolyn Road, Leicester, UK. b.d.hunt@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: Benjamin D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Stephen L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Hiles
authors.forename: Avni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chauhan
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ighofose
authors.forename: Nilesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bharakhada
authors.forename: Avkash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: Melanie J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Kamlesh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khunti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: health services; population-based and preventative services; public health