Cardiovascular Disease Treatment Among Patients with Severe Mental Illness: a Data Linkage Study Between Primary and Secondary Care

Overview

Journal Br J Gen Pract

Specialty Public Health

Date 2016 Apr 27

PMID 27114210

Citations 23

Authors

Charlotte Woodhead

Mark Ashworth

Matthew Broadbent

Felicity Callard

Matthew Hotopf

Peter Schofield

Murat Soncul

Robert J Stewart

Max J Henderson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Suboptimal treatment of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among patients with severe mental illness (SMI) may contribute to physical health disparities.

Aim: To identify SMI characteristics associated with meeting CVD treatment and prevention guidelines.

Design And Setting: Population-based electronic health record database linkage between primary care and the sole provider of secondary mental health care services in south east London, UK.

Method: Cardiovascular disease prevalence, risk factor recording, and Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) clinical target achievement were compared among 4056 primary care patients with SMI whose records were linked to secondary healthcare records and 270 669 patients without SMI who were not known to secondary care psychiatric services, using multivariate logistic regression modelling. Data available from secondary care records were then used to identify SMI characteristics associated with QOF clinical target achievement.

Results: Patients with SMI and with coronary heart disease and heart failure experienced reduced prescribing of beta blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEI/ARB). A diagnosis of schizophrenia, being identified with any indicator of risk or illness severity, and being prescribed with depot injectable antipsychotic medication was associated with the lowest likelihood of prescribing.

Conclusion: Linking primary and secondary care data allows the identification of patients with SMI most at risk of undertreatment for physical health problems.

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