Cardiovascular disease risk assessment & management

Cardiovascular disease is largely preventable and is associated with large within-population health inequalities.

In New Zealand, 38% of all deaths are attributable to cardiovascular disease, with deaths in Māori up to four times higher than those in NZ Europeans. Early detection and management of risk factors are vitally important as it can lead to a reduction in morbidity and premature death.

It is important to recognise who needs a cardiovascular risk assessment, how to perform a cardiovascular risk assessment, how to interpret and communicate the results and how to manage cardiovascular risk.

In February 2018, the New Zealand Ministry of Health published a consensus statement on cardiovascular disease risk assessment and management to update and refresh the CVD guidelines in the New Zealand Primary Care Handbook 2012. This handbook remains a reference for health care practitioners, however, the 2018 consensus statement provides updates for CVD risk assessment, management and diabetes screening advice.

The background reading for this short course is the 2018 Ministry of Health publication Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment and Management for Primary Care which replaces previous advice on CVD risk assessment.

The objectives of this module are for the participant to be able to:

• identify who needs cardiovascular risk assessment
• understand the components of a cardiovascular risk assessment
• understand how to interpret and communicate results of a cardiovascular risk assessment to a patient and their whanau as part of shared decision making
• understand how to manage specific cardiovascular risk factors.

Acknowledgements

This content was created by Dr Karen Falloon MBChB, FRNZCGP, PhD. with Associate Professor Gerry Devlin. It was reviewed in 2022 by Connie Kang BPharm(Hons).