Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in primary care:the evidence

The National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease emphasises the role of primary care in secondary prevention. More than 20% of men and 12% of women aged 65 years and over suffer from ischaemic heart disease. Lifestyle changes and drug treatment may effectively reduce risk but uptake of the evidence base is patchy. There are a number of possible approaches to enhance the uptake. Nurse-led clinics and health promotion clinics can lead to improvement in reported lifestyle and self-reported health status. Audit and feedback may lead to more use of appropriate drugs. Systematic recall will lead to better documentation that care conforms to standard practice, and nurses are at least as effective as doctors in achieving this. The first step is to set up accurate morbidity registers.