'People like you?': how people with hypertension make sense of future cardiovascular risk-a qualitative study

Communicating cardiovascular risk: Systematic review of qualitative evidence

INTRODUCTION

Cardiovascular risk prediction models are widely used to help individuals understand risk and make decisions.

METHODS

Systematic review of qualitative evidence. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL. We included English-language qualitative studies on the communication of cardiovascular risk. We assessed study quality using Hawker et al.'s tool and synthesised data thematically.

RESULTS

Thirty-seven studies were included. Many patients think that risk scores are of limited practical value. Other sources of information feed into informal estimates of risk, which may lead patients to reject the results of clinical risk assessment when the two conflict. Clinicians identify a number of barriers to risk communication, including patients' limited understanding of risk and excessive anxiety. They use a range of strategies for adapting risk communication. Both clinicians and individuals express specific preferences for risk communication formats.

DISCUSSION

Ways of communicating risk that provide some comparison or reference point seem more promising. The broader context of communication around risk may be more important than the risk scoring instrument. Risk communication interventions, in practice, may be more about appeals to emotion than a rationalistic model of decision-making.

Collaborative design of a decision aid for stroke survivors with multimorbidity: a qualitative study in the UK engaging key stakeholders

OBJECTIVES

Effective secondary stroke prevention strategies are suboptimally used. Novel development of interventions to enable healthcare professionals and stroke survivors to manage risk factors for stroke recurrence are required. We sought to engage key stakeholders in the design and evaluation of an intervention informed by a learning health system approach, to improve risk factor management and secondary prevention for stroke survivors with multimorbidity.

DESIGN

Qualitative, including focus groups, semistructured interviews and usability evaluations. Data was audio recorded, transcribed and coded thematically.

PARTICIPANTS

Stroke survivors, carers, health and social care professionals, commissioners, policymakers and researchers.

SETTING

Stroke survivors were recruited from the South London Stroke Register; health and social care professionals through South London general practices and King's College London (KCL) networks; carers, commissioners, policymakers and researchers through KCL networks.

RESULTS

53 stakeholders in total participated in focus groups, interviews and usability evaluations. Thirty-seven participated in focus groups and interviews, including stroke survivors and carers (n=11), health and social care professionals (n=16), commissioners and policymakers (n=6) and researchers (n=4). Sixteen participated in usability evaluations, including stroke survivors (n=8) and general practitioners (GPs; n=8). Eight themes informed the collaborative design of DOTT (Deciding On Treatments Together), a decision aid integrated with the electronic health record system, to be used in primary care during clinical consultations between the healthcare professional and stroke survivor. DOTT aims to facilitate shared decision-making on personalised treatments leading to improved treatment adherence and risk control. DOTT was found acceptable and usable among stroke survivors and GPs during a series of evaluations.

CONCLUSIONS

Adopting a user-centred data-driven design approach informed an intervention that is acceptable to users and has the potential to improve patient outcomes. A future feasibility study and subsequent clinical trial will provide evidence of the effectiveness of DOTT in reducing risk of stroke recurrence.