Family Physician’s Knowledge, Beliefs, and Self-reported Practice Patterns Regarding Hyperlipidemia: A National Research Network (NRN) Survey

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Sociodemographics of Family Physician Survey Respondents

Item and Response Categories	Percentage
Age (N = 629)
31–40	28
41–50	38
51–60	29
61+	6
Gender (N = 641)
Male	70
Female	30
Years in practice (N = 624)
1–5	16
6–10	22
11–20	32
21+	29
Practice type (N = 641)
Solo	20
2-person	12
FM group	38
Multi-spec group	20
Other	10
Population of community (N = 632)
<2500	7
2500–19,999	29
20,000–249,999	39
250,000–999,999	14
>1,000,000	11
Type of location (N = 625)
Inner city urban	5
Urban (not inner city)	21
Suburban	39
Rural	35
Geographic region (based on states) (N = 641)
Northeast	16
South	31
Midwest	30
West	24

Table 2.

Self-reported Screening

Item and Response Categories	Percentage
“How frequently do you assess your adult patients who do not have an established diagnosis of heart disease for personal risk factors (history and lipid profile) related to coronary heart disease risk?” (N = 637)
Never	0
Rarely	1
Occasionally	7
Usually	56
Always	36
“Do you use a flow sheet or other tracking mechanism in your office chart system to track screening for heart disease prevention?” (N = 624)
Never	34
Rarely	15
Occasionally	15
Usually	21
Always	16
“At what age do you typically start lipid screening in women?” (N = 628)
Under age 18	2
18–23	30
24–34	32
35–39	7
>40	29
“At what age do you typically start lipid screening in men?” (N = 627)
Under age 18	2
18–23	32
24–34	37
35–39	10
>40	19
“Who typically does the risk assessment?” (N = 639)
Family physician	89
Staff	0
Combination	11
“When you assess patients for coronary risk, how often do you use a coronary heart disease risk calculator?” (N = 628)
Never	42
Rarely	20
Occasionally	20
Usually	12
Always	5

Table 3.

Self-reported Hyperlipidemia Management Practices of Family Physicians

Item and Response Category	Percentage
“If a patient’s hyperlipidemia is uncontrolled, how frequently do you typically see the patient?” (N = 627)
<4 visits per year	27
4 visits	53
4–6 visits	16
>6 visits	4
“If a patient’s hyperlipidemia is controlled, how frequently do you typically see the patient?” (N = 628)
<2 visits per year	26
2 visits	49
2–4 visits	23
>4 visits	1
If patient is on statin, “What is your most likely next step if the LFPs are normal but the lipid is abnormal?” (N = 637)
Restart statin at lower dose	10
Change to different statin	57
Switch class of drug	30
Other	4
“How often do you monitor CPK in patients on statin therapy for hyperlipidemia?” (N = 636)
Baseline and if symptoms	14
Periodically	12
Only if symptoms	67
Only high risk patients	2
Other	5

Table 4.

Barriers to Assessment of Hyperlipidemia Reported by Family Physicians

“What are the two or three greatest barriers you face in assessing coronary heart disease in your patients?”	Percentage of Total Barriers to Assessment
Patient Factors	50
Adherence	18
Beliefs and Attitudes	16
Cost	12
Health Habits	2
Other	2
Physician Factors	25
Time	23
Other	2
System Factors	25
Insurance	11
Doctor-Patient Communication	9
Other	5

Table 5.

Barriers to Treatment of Hyperlipidemia Reported by Family Physicians

“What are the two or three greatest barriers you face in treating your patients with hyperlipidemia?”	Percentage of Total Barriers to Treatment
Patient factors	74
Adherence	34
Cost	28
Beliefs and attitudes	8
Health habits	4
Physician factors	3
Time	2
Other	1
System issues	23
Insurance	5
Doctor-patient communication	3
Other	15