RISK-I
Research type
Research Study
Full title
RISK-I: Exploring RISK Identification to prevent cardiovascular disease
IRAS ID
182112
Contact name
Caroline Morris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
RISK-I: Exploring Risk-Identification to prevent cardiovascular disease
Preventing cardiovascular disease by screening individuals to determine those ‘at risk’ has become a major activity of primary care and is governed by a wide range of guidelines and policies. These centre on risk assessment technology which, using population data, estimates the risk of an individual having a ‘cardiovascular event’ (e.g. heart attack or stroke) within the following 10 years. The assumption is that knowing their risk will motivate people to change their behaviour – either making ‘lifestyle’ changes, or by taking medication.
Recent changes in guidelines have resulted in an estimated 17.5 million people likely to be ’high risk’, the majority of which are asymptomatic (and therefore the target of primary prevention).Evidence suggests that there are disconnects between the intentions of guidelines and the reality of people’s experience: 1) Guidelines are often implemented inconsistently; 2) people may not engage with screening and risk labelling; 3) population based interventions may have relatively small benefits, or even harms, to individuals; 4) delivery of guideline recommendations may fail to convey uncertainty about potential benefits and harms; 5) individualised risk labelling gives only limited recognition of the social and economic factors which influence people’s experience of being ‘at risk’.
This study explores how risk is identified in practice using ‘institutional ethnography’, an established methodological approach using observational and interview techniques. The investigation starts from the experience of patients and investigates the ways in which risk identification processes shape (or fail to shape) their actions. The study aims to particularly focus on the issues for patients who are not highly engaged in prevention but who have been shown to experience a higher number and severity of risk factors.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0883
Date of REC Opinion
13 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion