Improving Hypertension _ Diabetes Control and Prevention

Stay Up-To-Date on Cholesterol Evidence-Based Guidelines

healthcare heart imagestock Exposure to high blood cholesterol over a lifetime can increase the risk for heart attack or stroke. The American College of Cardiology's 2018 Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol provides new and consistent evidence-based cholesterol-lowering recommendations, including lifestyle interventions, statin and non-statin regimens, risk assessment scores and calculators, and management of specific patient populations.

Download the American Heart Association's (AHA) Guidelines On-the-Go mobile app and stay up-to-date no matter where you are. This app is available for free on iTunes or Google Play.
Early Prevention is Key in Children & Adolescents

kids On March 26, 2016, the American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement, Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in High-Risk Pediatric Patients , which reports that an estimated 6% of all youth 2 to 19 years old (equating to >4,000,000 children and adolescents) are afflicted with severe obesity in the United States. Unlike moderate (class I) obesity or overweight, rates of severe obesity have increased over the past decade.

The report emphasizes that these children and adolescents may be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) over the life span requires attention to prevention or management of ASCVD risk factors beginning early in life.
Updated Cholesterol Guideline Pinpoints Major Risk Factors  

cigarette The updated cholesterol guideline states that although LDL-C is a primary cause of atherosclerosis, other risk factors contribute as well. The major risk factors include cigarette smoking, hypertension, dysglycemia, and other lipoprotein abnormalities. Because atherosclerosis progresses with advancing age, a person's age also counts as a risk factor.

Additionally, the new guideline adds factors like family history [see information on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH)] and ethnicity, as well as certain health conditions such as metabolic syndrome, chronic kidney disease, chronic inflammatory conditions, premature menopause or pre- eclampsia and high lipid biomarkers. Modifiable and non-modifiable risk- enhancing factors are discussed at length and outlined on page 34 of the 2018 Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol referenced above.
ahrq's question builder app helps patients better prepare for medical appointments  

apps Research confirms that patients are more likely to get accurate diagnoses and have better outcomes when they ask questions and communicate clearly with their doctors, nurses, and other providers.  That's why asking questions and sharing information has long been a key component of AHRQ's work in patient and family engagement and in AHRQ's Questions Are the Answer public education campaign. Patients and clinicians alike have shared their stories about the importance of two-way communication.

Now, AHRQ is bringing Questions Are the Answer to a mobile device near you. The new Question Builder mobile app, available at no charge on iTunes and Google Play, helps patients prepare and organize questions and other helpful information ahead of time and puts that information at their fingertips, as part of an email or calendar appointment that allows for note taking during medical visits.

Watch this short video for a step-by-step demonstration of how to use the QuestionBuilder App.
contact information

For more details about the Improving Hypertension and Diabetes Care & Prevention project, please contact Ashley Biscardi, Sarah Toborowski, Ryan Williamson, and Danielle Nugent.
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This publication was supported by the Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP004799-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
Publication number: DEDPH-HD-060719