Factors that influence the delivery of cardiovascular disease preventative care for female patients

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death among women. CVD prevention guidelines recommend physicians screen for CVD risk factors and provide health education to increase awareness of CVD and assist women in understanding how to perform lifestyle changes to reduce their risk. However, the literature demonstrates that women are not receiving quality CVD care. Moreover, studies show that CVD risk factors and the quality of health care service vary across regions of the United States. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the association between geographic region and time with the provision of CVD preventative care services for female patients. Using office-based data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (2005-2010), descriptive statistics were calculated and multilevel modeling analyses were performed at the patient and physician level. Female patients were less likely to obtain cholesterol screening during visits that occurred in practices located in the Midwest (OR: .830, P=.029) and South (OR: .636, P=.000) than practices located in the Northeast region of the United States. Female patients were also less likely to receive any type of health education during visits that occurred in practices located in the South (OR: .765, P=.005) and West (OR: .763, P=.006) in comparison to the Northeast region. These findings demonstrate that there are regional differences in CVD screening services and the provision of health education for female patients. Additional research is needed to obtain a more in-depth understanding of this relationship to assist in the development of effective interventions.