The Article in Brief

Patients' Perceptions of Cholesterol, Cardiovascular Disease Risk, and Risk Communication Strategies

Roberta E. Goldman, PhD, and colleagues

Background High cholesterol levels can contribute to cardiovascular (heart) disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. This study uses focus groups to explore people's knowledge of and attitudes toward cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as their reactions to different methods of communicating the risk of cardiovascular disease.

What This Study Found All participants were aware that high cholesterol levels can harm health, but few were knowledgeable about hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol level) or the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with it. Most participants did not know their own cholesterol numbers and did not think that knowing their numbers would motivate them to change their health habits. Many assumed they had been tested and their cholesterol levels were healthy, even if their physicians had not mentioned it. Participants felt that a communication method that told them their "heart age" was clear and easy to remember, and might motivate people to make healthful changes. (Heart age considers how your cholesterol levels, family health history, and certain aspects of your personal health history affect your risk of having a heart attack. Based on this information, you are assigned a heart age, which may be higher or lower than your actual age.)

Implications

• Complex explanations about cholesterol and cardiovascular disease risk do not appear to be effective in motivating patients to change their health habits. Patients prefer individualized, personally meaningful information that can help them make health care and lifestyle decisions.
• Providing patients with information they can identify with about their personal risk of cardiovascular disease related to cholesterol may help them to understand and make use of other, more general cholesterol education programs.