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Table 1 Baseline characteristics of general practices and participantsa

From: Deprescribing preventive cardiovascular medication in patients with predicted low cardiovascular disease risk in general practice – the ECSTATIC study: a cluster randomised non-inferiority trial

Characteristic

Usual care group

PP intervention group

ITT intervention group

General practices

 No. of general practices

23

23

23

 Years of working experience (as GP) of GP – median (range)

14 (4-36)

21 (1-36)

21 (1-36)

Participants

 No. of participants

575

319

492

 Caucasian – no. (%)

543 (94.4)

297 (93.1)

451 (91.7)

 Higher education – no. (%)b

168 (29.2)

124 (38.9)c

180 (36.6)c

 10-year CVD risk score for inclusion (%)d

7.0 (± 5.6)

6.5 (± 4.8)

6.7 (± 4.2)

Cardiovascular risk factors

 10-year CVD risk score (%)e

5.1 (±  3.7)

4.7 (± 4.0)

4.9 (± 3.7)

 Age (years)

54.9 (± 9.2)

54.5 (± 8.0)

54.5 (± 7.8)

 Female – no. (%)

420 (73.0)

229 (71.8)

347 (70.5)

 Smokers – no. (%)

66 (11.5)

19 (6.0)c

38 (7.7)c

 Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)

139.8 (± 16.3)

140.4 (± 17.2)

140.9 (± 20.8)

 Total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio

3.7 (± 1.4)

3.7 (± 1.0)

3.8 (± 1.0)

 LDL cholesterol (mg/dl)

126.8 (± 55.1)

126.4 (± 38.8)

127.2 (± 42.5)

Medication use at baseline

 Using antihypertensive drugs – no. (%)

479 (83.3)

280 (87.8)

431 (87.6)

 Agents acting on the renin-angiotensin system – no. (%)

300 (52.2)

163 (51.1)

276 (56.1)

 Diuretics – no. (%)

267 (46.4)

136 (42.6)

216 (43.9)

 Beta-blocking agents – no. (%)

154 (26.8)

83 (26.0)

125 (25.4)

 Calcium channel blockers – no. (%)

62 (10.8)

37 (11.6)

61 (12.4)

 Other antihypertensive drugs – no. (%)

3 (0.5)

1 (0.3)

2 (0.5)

 Using antihypertensive drugs from ≥ 2 classes – no. (%)

58 (10.1)

20 (6.3)c

44 (8.9)

 Using lipid-lowering drugs – no. (%)

163 (28.3)

65 (20.4)c

105 (21.3)

 HMG CoA reductase inhibitors – no. (%)

162 (28.2)

62 (19.4)c

101 (20.5)c

 Other lipid-lowering drugs – no. (%)

10 (2.0)

8 (2.5)

11 (2.2)

 Using both antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs – no. (%)

67 (11.7)

27 (8.5)c

44 (8.9)c

  1. CVD cardiovascular disease, GP general practitioner, HDL high-density lipoprotein, ITT intention-to-treat, LDL low-density lipoprotein, PP per-protocol
  2. aPlus or minus values are means ±  standard deviation. All continuous variables were adjusted for cluster randomisation with multilevel linear models
  3. bUniversity (of professional education) level
  4. cP < 0.05 compared to the usual care group
  5. d10-year CVD risk score estimated for inclusion with baseline values of age, sex and smoking behaviour, and pre-treatment systolic blood pressure and pre-treatment total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio as if participants did not use preventive cardiovascular medication
  6. e10-year CVD risk score estimated at baseline with baseline values of age, sex, smoking behaviour, systolic blood pressure and total/cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio