This publication was published more than 5 years ago. The state of knowledge may have changed.

Population screening of risk factors and brief lifestyle counselling as primary prevention of cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death among both men and women in Sweden. There are several known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, old age and smoking. Several regions in Sweden have introduced population-oriented prevention programs. The programs invite all individuals from a certain age group to a targeted health check or screening to assess the presence of cardiovascular risk factors as well as a subsequent “health talk” where participants receive information such as their individual risk factors as well as advice and counselling regarding their lifestyle.

Reading time approx. 14 minutes Published: December 19, 2019 Publication type:

SBU Enquiry Service

Consists of structured literature searches to highlight studies that can address questions received by the SBU Enquiry Service from Swedish healthcare or social service providers. We assess the risk of bias in systematic reviews and when needed also quality and transferability of results in health economic studies. Relevant references are compiled by an SBU staff member, in consultation with an external expert when needed.

Contact SBU

Published: December 19, 2019 Report no: ut201940 Registration no: SBU 2019/652

Question

What systematic reviews are there on population screening programs on cardiovascular risk factors in combination with brief lifestyle counselling?

Identified literature

**Table 1. Systematic reviews with low/medium risk of bias.**
Included studies	Population/Intervention	Outcome
Patnode et al, 2017 [1]
88 Articles (87 RCTs and 1 non-RCT) reported in 145 publications were included. Included studies had to be conducted in the primary care or was conducted from the primary care (e.g. telephone support).	Adults above 18 years without CVD, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes, impaired fasting glucose or glucose tolerance. The interventions had to be focused on improving dietary habits, increasing physical activity and/or reducing sedentary time with primary aim of CVD primary prevention. Interventions targeting persons categorized as high risk where excluded.	Health outcomes: Cardiovascular morbidity and Mortality, all-cause mortality, health-related quality of life. Risk factors: Blood pressure, lipid levels, glucose levels, adiposity, BMI, weight and waist circumference. Behaviour: Dietary intake, physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Adverse effect: Harms of intervention.
Authors' conclusion: “Diet and physical activity behavioural interventions for adults not at high risk for cardiovascular disease result in consistent modest benefits across a variety of important intermediate health outcomes across 6 to 12 months, including blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein and total cholesterol levels, and adiposity, with evidence of a dose-response effect, with higher-intensity interventions conferring greater improvements. There is very limited evidence on longer-term intermediate and health outcomes or harmful effects on these interventions.”
Dyakova et al, 2016 [2]
Included only RCTs. Focus on primary prevention so RCT’s covering participants without known CVD were included.	Healthy adults from the general population, including both low and high-risk individuals. Studies on individuals already diagnosed with CVD were excluded. The intervention was a systematic risk assessment for primary prevention of CVD involving people who are systematically invited to attend in a primary care setting	Primary outcomes: All-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, Non-fatal cardiovascular endpoints. CVD major risk factors: Lipid levels, blood pressure, type 2 diabetes. Intermediate outcomes: Case-finding rates, attendance rates, acceptability, satisfaction, follow-up rates. Adverse effects Costs
Authors' conclusion: “The results of this systematic review do not provide enough evidence to inform changes in clinical practice, national/local policies or the introduction of mass population cardiovascular screening programmes. There is limited evidence for beneficial effects on CVD risk factors, but trials are heterogeneous and at some risk of bias and results are therefore uncertain.“
Álvarez-Bueno et al, 2014 [3]
Included 8 systematic reviews consisting of totally 219 studies.	Adults free of cardiovascular disease. Multifactorial interventions carried out in community settings as primary prevention strategy to reduce cardiovascular risk.	Total mortality, CVD mortality and morbidity. Changes in four cardiovascular risk factors: DBP, SBP, total cholesterol, BMI and smoking.
Authors' conclusion: “Our study provides evidence supporting that multifactorial community interventions are useful to improve cardiovascular risk factors levels and have a small, but potentially important, effect on population mortality. Moreover, this systematic review highlights that multifactorial interventions seem to be more effective in the at-risk population and when they are carried out at a high level of intensity.
Lee et al, 2017 [4]
Included 14 health economic evaluations. Five studies were based on RCT’s, seven on observational studies and two were based on hypothetical modelling.	The population of interest were the adult general population. The intervention had two components. Screening with a risk tool to assess a global risk score and referral to appropriate lifestyle and pharmacological interventions to modify relevant risk factors. Screening programs for specific diseases or risk factors were excluded.	Risk factors, CVD outcomes, utility, life years, event-free time, disability adjusted life years, quality adjusted life years and net monetary impact.
Authors' conclusion: “Recommendations for population-wide risk assessment and management programmes lack a robust, real world, evidence basis. Given implementation is resource intensive there is need for robust economic evaluation, ideally conducted alongside trials, to assess cost effectiveness. Further the efficiency and equity impact of different delivery models should be investigated, and also the combination of targeted screening with whole population interventions recognising that there multiple approaches to prevention.”
BMI = Body mass index; CVD = Cardiovascular disease; DBP = Diastolic blood pressure; RCT = Randomised control study; SBP = Systolic blood pressure

References

Patnode CD, Evans CV, Senger CA, Redmond N, Lin JS. Behavioral Counseling to Promote a Healthful Diet and Physical Activity for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Adults Without Known Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Updated Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 2017;318:175-193.
Dyakova M, Shantikumar S, Colquitt JL, Drew CM, Sime M, Maciver J, et al. Systematic versus opportunistic risk assessment for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016;2016.
Alvarez-Bueno C, Cavero-Redondo I, Martínez-Andrés M, Arias-Palencia N, Ramos-Blanes R, Salcedo-Aguilar F, et al. Effectiveness of multifactorial interventions in primary health care settings for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: A systematic review of systematic reviews. Preventive Medicine 2015;76:S68-75.
Lee JT, Lawson KD, Wan Y, Majeed A, Morris S, Soljak M, et al. Are cardiovascular disease risk assessment and management programmes cost effective? A systematic review of the evidence. Preventive Medicine 2017;99:49-57.

Literature search

**Medline via OVID 2019-11-06**
**Screening for risk factors and brief lifestyle counselling for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease among the general population**
The search result, usually found at the end of the documentation, forms the list of abstracts.; [MeSH] = Term from the Medline controlled vocabulary, including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; [MeSH:NoExp] = Does not include terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; [MAJR] = MeSH Major Topic; [TIAB] = Title or abstract; [TI] = Title; [AU] = Author; [TW] = Text Word; Systematic[SB] = Filter for retrieving systematic reviews; * = Truncation
Search terms		Items found
Population:
1.	exp Primary Health Care/	151,697
2.	((Primary ADJ2 care) OR (health centre$ or health center$ OR community intervention OR patient behavioral change OR primary prevention OR cardiovascular screening)).ti,ab,kw.	171,405
3.	(community care OR community health centre$ OR family practi* or general practi*).ti,ab.	91,841
4.	1 OR 2 OR 3	339,226
Intervention:
5.	(Multiple adj2 risk adj3 (intervention* or prevention)).ti,ab.	575
6.	(multifactor* adj2 (intervention or prevention)).ti,ab.	689
7.	(behavio?r* adj3 risk adj2 factor* adj3 (reduc* or manag* or intervention* or modification)).ti,ab.	191
8.	((coronary or heart or cardiovascular) adj3 risk? adj2 information).ti,ab.	269
9.	((Lifestyle or Life-style or "Life style") adj3 (Recomendat* or advice or Dialogue or counsel* or consult* or modification or intervention?)).ti,ab.	14,004
10.	(Health? adj3 (advice or dialogue or counsel* or consult* or recomendat*)).ti,ab.	10,008
11.	"behavioral counseling".ti,ab.	695
12.	((behavio?r* or lifestyle or "life-style" or "life style") adj3 (chang* or modification or alter) adj3 (intervention? or program or prevent*)).ti,ab.	6,675
13.	(care check* or "checkup?" or "check‐up?" or "health check?").ti,ab.	8,882
14.	screen*.af.	789,289
15.	((cardi* or primary prevention) adj3 risk assessment).ti,ab.	1,891
16.	5 OR 6 OR 7 OR 8 OR 9 OR 10 OR 11 OR 12 OR 13 OR 14 OR 15 OR 16	825,790
Outcome:
17.	exp Cardiovascular Diseases/	2,316,277
18.	exp Hypertension/	248,859
19.	exp Heart Diseases/	1,095,175
20.	exp Cholesterol/	157,330
21.	exp Blood Pressure/	285,231
22.	(cardi* or coronary* or heart* or hypertensi* or blood pressure or cholesterol*).af.	3,208,497
23.	((Cardiovascular or coronary) adj1 "risk factor?").af.	36,652
24.	((Coronary or Cardiovascular) adj2 disease?).ti,ab.	285,770
25.	17 OR 18 OR 19 OR 20 OR 21 OR 22 OR 23 OR 24 OR 25	4,003,417
Limits:
26.	(diabete? not (diabete? and (cardi* or heart? or hyper* or chol*))).ti.	196,415
Study types:
27.	exp "Systematic Review"/ OR exp Meta-Analysis/	259,316
28.	((systematic* adj3 review) or meta analy or metaanaly*).ti,ab.	175,779
29.	27 OR 28	280,985
Combined sets:
30.	4 AND 16 AND 25	7,969
31.	30 NOT 26	7,376
Final	31 AND 29	359

**Embase via embase.com 2019-11-06**
**Screening for risk factors and brief lifestyle counseling for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease among the general population**
/de = Term from the EMTREE controlled vocabulary; /exp = Includes terms found below this term in the EMTREE hierarchy; /mj = Major Topic; :ab = Abstract; :au = Author; :ti = Article Title; :ti,ab = Title or abstract; * = Truncation; ’ ’ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms		Items found
Population:
1.	'primary health care'/exp OR 'primary medical care'/exp	161,725
2.	((primary NEXT/2 care):ti,ab,kw) OR ’health centre$’:ti,ab,kw OR ’health center$’:ti,ab,kw OR 'community intervention':ti,ab,kw OR ’patient behavioral change$’:ti,ab,kw OR 'primary prevention' OR 'cardiovascular screening'	258,207
3.	'community care':ti,ab OR ’community health centre$’:ti,ab OR 'family practi':ti,ab OR 'general practi':ti,ab	119,257
4.	1 OR 2 OR 3	399,140
Intervention:
5.	(Multiple NEXT/2 risk NEAR/3 (intervention* OR prevention)):ti,ab	668
6.	((multifactor* NEXT/2 (intervention OR prevention)):ti,ab)	814
7.	(behavio?r* NEAR/3 risk NEXT/2 factor* NEAR/3 (reduc* OR manag* OR intervention* OR modification)):ti,ab	92
8.	((coronary OR heart OR cardiovascular) NEAR/3 risk$ NEXT/2 information):ti,ab	95
9.	((Lifestyle OR Life-style OR ’Life style’) NEAR/3 (Recomendat* OR advice or Dialogue OR counsel* OR consult* OR modification OR intervention$)):ti,ab	21,401
10.	(Health$ NEAR/3 (advice OR dialogue OR counsel* OR consult* OR recomendat*)):ti,ab	13,026
11.	'behavioral counseling':ti,ab	855
12.	((behavio?r* OR lifestyle OR 'life-style' OR 'life style') NEAR/3 (chang* OR modification OR alter) NEAR/3 (intervention$ OR program OR prevent*)):ti,ab	5,142
13.	('care check*' OR checkup$ OR check‐up$ OR ’health check$’):ti,ab	23,986
14.	’screen*'	1,287,399
15.	((cardi$* OR 'primary prevention') NEAR/3 'risk assessment'):ti,ab	3,092
16.	5 OR 6 OR 7 OR 8 OR 9 OR 10 OR 11 OR 12 OR 13 OR 14 OR 15	1,344,022
Outcome:
17.	'cardiovascular disease'/exp	4,265,432
18.	’hypertension’/exp	726,457
19.	'heart disease'/exp	1,914,720
20.	’Cholesterol’/exp	313,027
21.	’Blood pressure’/Exp	570,450
22.	(cardi$* OR coronary* OR heart* or hypertensi* OR ’blood pressure’ OR cholesterol*)	4,817,516
23.	(Cardiovascular OR coronary) NEXT/1 risk factor$	136,982
24.	((Coronary OR Cardiovascular) NEXT/2 disease$):ti,ab	415,971
25.	17 OR 18 OR 19 OR 20 OR 21 OR 22 OR 23 OR 24 OR 25	6,105,389
Limits:
26.	(diabete$:ti NOT (diabete$:ti AND (cardi:ti OR heart$:ti OR hyper:ti OR chol*:ti)))	274,417
Study types:
27.	([cochrane review]/lim OR [systematic review]/lim OR [meta analysis]/lim)	322,382
28.	(systematic* NEXT/3 review):ab,ti OR ‘meta analy’:ab,ti OR metaanaly*:ab,ti	329,736
29.	27 OR 28	418,127
Combined sets:
30.	4 AND 16 AND 25	14,238
31.	30 NOT 26	13,158
Final	31 AND 29	633

**CINAHL via ebsco 2019-11-06**
**Screening for risk factors and brief lifestyle counseling for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease among the general population**
The search result, usually found at the end of the documentation, forms the list of abstracts.; AB = Abstract; AU = Author; DE = Term from the thesaurus; MM = Major Concept; TI = Title; TX = All Text. Performs a keyword search of all the database's searchable fields; ZC = Methodology Index; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms		Items found
Population:
1.	(MH "Primary Health Care")	56,519
2.	(AB (Primary W2 care) OR (health centre# or health center# OR “community intervention” OR “patient behavioral change” OR “primary prevention” OR “cardiovascular screening”)) OR (TI (Primary W2 care) OR (health centre# or health center# OR “community intervention” OR “patient behavioral change” OR “primary prevention” OR “cardiovascular screening”))	100,963
3.	(AB (“community care” OR “community health centre#” OR “family practi” or “general practi”) OR (TI (“community care” OR “community health centre#” OR “family practi” or “general practi”)	32,291
4.	1 OR 2 OR 3	145,872
Intervention:
5.	(AB (Multiple W2 risk N3 (intervention* or prevention))) OR (TI (Multiple W2 risk N3 (intervention* or prevention)))	197
6.	(AB (multifactor* W2 (intervention or prevention))) OR (TI (multifactor* W2 (intervention or prevention)))	451
7.	(AB (behavio#r* N3 risk W2 factor* N3 (reduc* or manag* or intervention* or modification))) OR (TI (behavio#r* N3 risk W2 factor* N3 (reduc* or manag* or intervention* or modification)))	125
8.	(AB (coronary or heart or cardiovascular) N3 risk# W2 information) OR (TI (coronary or heart or cardiovascular) N3 risk# W2 information)	71
9.	(AB (Lifestyle or “Life-style” or "Life style") N3 (Recomendat* or advice or Dialogue or counsel* or consult* or modification or intervention#)) OR (TI (Lifestyle or “Life-style” or "Life style") N3 (Recommendat* or advice or Dialogue or counsel* or consult* or modification or intervention#))	7,681
10.	(AB (Health# N# (advice or dialogue or counsel* or consult* or recomendat))) OR (TI (Health# N# (advice or dialogue or counsel or consult* or recomendat*)))	154
11.	AB "behavioral counseling" OR TI "behavioral counseling"	415
12.	(AB (behavio#r* or lifestyle or "life-style" or "life style") N3 (chang* or modification or alter) N3 (intervention# or program or prevent)) OR (TI (behavio#r or lifestyle or "life-style" or "life style") N3 (chang* or modification or alter) N3 (intervention# or program or prevent*))	4,272
13.	(AB (care check* or "checkup#" or "check‐up#" or "health check#")) OR (TI (care check* or "checkup#" or "check‐up#" or "health check#"))	5,193
14.	screen*	179,647
14.	(AB (cardi* or primary prevention) N3 risk assessment) OR (TI (cardi* or primary prevention) N3 risk assessment)	1,268
15.	5 OR 6 OR 7 OR 8 OR 9 OR 10 OR 11 OR 12 OR 13 OR 14 OR 15 OR 16	195,777
Outcome:
16.	(MH "Cardiovascular Diseases+")	513,232
17.	(MH "Hypertension+")	68,715
18.	(MH "Heart Diseases+")	241,516
19.	(MH "Cholesterol+")	24,215
20.	(MH "Blood Pressure+")	43,405
21.	(cardi* or coronary* or heart* or hypertensi* or blood pressure or cholesterol*)	589,576
22.	((Cardiovascular or coronary) W1 "risk factor?")	1,453
23.	(AB (Coronary or Cardiovascular) W2 disease?) OR (TI (Coronary or Cardiovascular) W2 disease?)	70,598
24.	17 OR 18 OR 19 OR 20 OR 21 OR 22 OR 23 OR 24 OR 25	777,443
Limits:
25.	(TI (diabete? not (diabete# and (cardi* or heart# or hyper* or chol*))))	80,776
Study types:
26.	(MH "Systematic Review") OR (MH "Meta Analysis")	95,064
27.	(AB (systematic* N3 review) or meta analy or metaanaly) OR (TI (systematic N3 review) or meta analy or metaanaly*)	125,245
28.	27 OR 28	149,919
Combined sets:
29.	4 AND 16 AND 25	3,257
30.	30 NOT 26	2,996
Final	31 AND 29	171

Page published December 19, 2019

To top