English summary: IMPLEMENTING CURRENT CARE CLINICAL GUIDELINES ASSOCIATED WITH CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

Background Current care guidelines aim to improve the quality of health care by supporting decision models in clinical work with evidence based guidelines. According to previous studies medical professionals' attitudes toward the guidelines have been reported to be positive. Cardiovascular diseases constitute a major part of work in primary health care. Thus, guidelines dealing with these diseases and their risk factors constitute the core of work among both doctors and nurses. The burden of chronic disease is increasing, followed by fast ageing, leading to a growing need for preventing chronic diseases and relieving the burden on individuals.

Methods In this study, attitudes, usage, ability to use and obstacles for using the guidelines on cardiovascular diseases were studied. The chosen guidelines included hypertension, smoking cessation, hyperlipidemia, and adult obesity. A questionnaire was sent to physicians and nurses to inquire about common attitudes to the Current Care guidelines, participation in training, ability to use and usage of the guidelines. The response rate was 59% (physicians n=59, nurses n=161).

Results The results showed that attitudes toward these guidelines are positive. Physicians were clearly more often familiar with the guidelines than nurses were. Physicians knew quite well those guidelines where pharmacological means are an integral part of the treatment. Half of the nurses had not attended any training on these guidelines during the past year.

Conclusions The studied guidelines form a core of primary health care, though they were not widely known and used in the Päijät-Häme region. Structured implementation of the guidelines among all health care professionals is taking place in the region.