Prevention of cardio-vascular disease in Swiss: general practitioners' opinions and practices

Objective: The aim of this research is, on the one hand, to describe the customs and attitudes of Swiss general practitioners (GP) considering cardiovascular risk, and on the other, to put into perspective with the national recommendation Eviprev (summary representations of the primary and secondary preventions recommendations for patients aged between 18 and 70 years old). Methods: The study was based on an online survey sent to general practitioners belonging to the same research network and who were randomly selected. The sample was made of 200 Swiss GP. This article focuses on the frequency with which GP give advice related to consumption of tobacco and alcohol, exercising and nutrition during a regular meeting with their patient or a first visit. The results were analyzed according to age, sex, linguistic area and the extent to which they lived in a city or in the countryside. Results: Results suggest that the majority (97.6%) of GP show concern about informing patients on cardiovascular risk factors. Nonetheless most of the advice given are usually related to the patient's case and not given in a systematic way. Tobacco addiction is the most systematically discussed theme during a first visit (33.9%), exercise comes second (25.6%), then nutrition (16.1%), and finally alcohol consumption (18.5%). Differences in numbers based on the different languages are little, except dealing with exercise. Conclusions: Recommendations on prevention are followed by a majority of GP Improvements could be made considering the training given and the remuneration of these counseling activities.