Executive Summary

The rates of treatment and control of high cholesterol are "far from optimal," especially among individuals at intermediate and high risk for cardiovascular disease, a study published in the Feb. 7 Circulation finds. Roughly half of the individuals at high- and intermediate-risk of CVD had untreated high cholesterol, or dyslipidemia, compared to less than 20% of individuals in the low-risk group. Additionally, "there is evidence of gender and ethnic disparities in both treatment and control," David Goff, MD/PhD, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, et al., state. "Efforts to improve the treatment and control of dyslipidemia and to eliminate disparities...should be considered among our highest national healthcare quality improvement priorities," they conclude. Goff et al. evaluated 6,704 patients from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a cohort study of individuals between 45-84 years old who were free of clinical CVD at baseline (2000-2002)...