According to national Swedish guidelines cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation should be a... more According to national Swedish guidelines cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation should be available for all coronary patients. Yet, over the years the access to this service has varied considerably between Swedish hospitals. Over the past five years the National Heart- and Lung Patients' Association has been engaged in a major staff training and research effort within this field assisted by a medical expert group. In assuring the quality of these efforts hospitals have been audited using a grading system of one to five hearts: one heart meaning an unsatisfactory level, five hearts an optimal level of care. An evaluation has shown that the support and grading has contributed to an improvement of preventive and rehabilitation care, though the ultimate goal of "five hearts for all" still remains to be achieved.
The aim of this study is to validate the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions of the self-admin... more The aim of this study is to validate the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions of the self-administered MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life questionnaire in patients with ischemic heart disease. The MacNew questionnaire, the Short Form SF-36, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were completed at baseline by 976 patients (Denmark n = 353, Norway n = 328, Sweden n = 295) with a diagnosis of angina (n = 335), myocardial infarction (n = 352), or heart failure (n = 289). Each language version of the MacNew satisfied reliability criteria with Cronbach's α values for the total group data (0.90-0.94) as well as the diagnostic group data (0.91-0.96). The test-retest correlations exceeded the criteria for group comparison (r ≥ 0.70) in Danish and Norwegian patients. The multidimensionality of the MacNew was confirmed although the original three-factor solution did not fully meet the criteria for good fit. Convergent and discriminative validity were confirmed in ...
EuroIntervention : journal of EuroPCR in collaboration with the Working Group on Interventional Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 2015
This cross-sectional observational study was designed to evaluate the uptake and outcome of patie... more This cross-sectional observational study was designed to evaluate the uptake and outcome of patient education after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A questionnaire containing 41 items was handed out to consecutive patients from randomly selected Swedish hospitals after PCI. Questions concerned the patient's attribution of the cause of the cardiac event, perception of the information provided by physicians and nurses, and a self-assessment of changes in lifestyle post PCI regarding tobacco, physical activity, food habits and stress. Replies were obtained from 1,073 patients (reply rate 67%). Non-modifiable risk factors (age, heredity) were attributed a higher rate as the cause of disease compared to modifiable factors (smoking, physical activity, food habits). Most patients (67%) perceived they were cured, and 38% perceived from the given information that there was no need to change their habits. A mere 27% reported that they still had cardiovascular disease and needed ...
Terbutaline sulphate was administered to 40 adult asthmatic patients via an ordinary metered-dose... more Terbutaline sulphate was administered to 40 adult asthmatic patients via an ordinary metered-dose inhaler (MDI) or one connected to a 750-ml spacer in an open, randomized, crossover study. Spirometry was obtained before the start of the study and again after four weeks of treatment with each inhaler. The patients recorded on a diary card the severity of their asthma symptoms and the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) in the morning before and after drug administration and in the evening. Preinhalation spirometric values were higher after four weeks with the 750-ml spacer than at the start of the study (P less than or equal to 0.05). Daily morning and evening PEFR values were higher after use of the 750-ml spacer than after use of the ordinary MDI (P less than 0.05). Daily symptom scores were generally low. A significantly better effect (P less than or equal to 0.05) with the 750-ml spacer was achieved only in daytime dyspnea. The investigators conclude that the attachment of a 750-ml ...
To analyse the treatment and control of dyslipidaemia in patients at high and very high cardiovas... more To analyse the treatment and control of dyslipidaemia in patients at high and very high cardiovascular risk being treated for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe. Data were assessed from the European Study on Cardiovascular Risk Prevention and Management in Usual Daily Practice (EURIKA, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00882336), which included a randomly sampled population of primary CVD prevention patients from 12 European countries (n = 7641). Patients' 10-year risk of CVD-related mortality was calculated using the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) algorithm, identifying 5019 patients at high cardiovascular risk (SCORE ≥5% and/or receiving lipid-lowering therapy), and 2970 patients at very high cardiovascular risk (SCORE ≥10% or with diabetes mellitus). Among high-risk individuals, 65.3% were receiving lipid-lowering therapy, and 61.3% of treated patients had uncontrolled low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (≥2.5 mmol/L)....
According to national Swedish guidelines cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation should be a... more According to national Swedish guidelines cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation should be available for all coronary patients. Yet, over the years the access to this service has varied considerably between Swedish hospitals. Over the past five years the National Heart- and Lung Patients' Association has been engaged in a major staff training and research effort within this field assisted by a medical expert group. In assuring the quality of these efforts hospitals have been audited using a grading system of one to five hearts: one heart meaning an unsatisfactory level, five hearts an optimal level of care. An evaluation has shown that the support and grading has contributed to an improvement of preventive and rehabilitation care, though the ultimate goal of "five hearts for all" still remains to be achieved.
The aim of this study is to validate the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions of the self-admin... more The aim of this study is to validate the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions of the self-administered MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life questionnaire in patients with ischemic heart disease. The MacNew questionnaire, the Short Form SF-36, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were completed at baseline by 976 patients (Denmark n = 353, Norway n = 328, Sweden n = 295) with a diagnosis of angina (n = 335), myocardial infarction (n = 352), or heart failure (n = 289). Each language version of the MacNew satisfied reliability criteria with Cronbach's α values for the total group data (0.90-0.94) as well as the diagnostic group data (0.91-0.96). The test-retest correlations exceeded the criteria for group comparison (r ≥ 0.70) in Danish and Norwegian patients. The multidimensionality of the MacNew was confirmed although the original three-factor solution did not fully meet the criteria for good fit. Convergent and discriminative validity were confirmed in ...
EuroIntervention : journal of EuroPCR in collaboration with the Working Group on Interventional Cardiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 2015
This cross-sectional observational study was designed to evaluate the uptake and outcome of patie... more This cross-sectional observational study was designed to evaluate the uptake and outcome of patient education after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A questionnaire containing 41 items was handed out to consecutive patients from randomly selected Swedish hospitals after PCI. Questions concerned the patient's attribution of the cause of the cardiac event, perception of the information provided by physicians and nurses, and a self-assessment of changes in lifestyle post PCI regarding tobacco, physical activity, food habits and stress. Replies were obtained from 1,073 patients (reply rate 67%). Non-modifiable risk factors (age, heredity) were attributed a higher rate as the cause of disease compared to modifiable factors (smoking, physical activity, food habits). Most patients (67%) perceived they were cured, and 38% perceived from the given information that there was no need to change their habits. A mere 27% reported that they still had cardiovascular disease and needed ...
Terbutaline sulphate was administered to 40 adult asthmatic patients via an ordinary metered-dose... more Terbutaline sulphate was administered to 40 adult asthmatic patients via an ordinary metered-dose inhaler (MDI) or one connected to a 750-ml spacer in an open, randomized, crossover study. Spirometry was obtained before the start of the study and again after four weeks of treatment with each inhaler. The patients recorded on a diary card the severity of their asthma symptoms and the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) in the morning before and after drug administration and in the evening. Preinhalation spirometric values were higher after four weeks with the 750-ml spacer than at the start of the study (P less than or equal to 0.05). Daily morning and evening PEFR values were higher after use of the 750-ml spacer than after use of the ordinary MDI (P less than 0.05). Daily symptom scores were generally low. A significantly better effect (P less than or equal to 0.05) with the 750-ml spacer was achieved only in daytime dyspnea. The investigators conclude that the attachment of a 750-ml ...
To analyse the treatment and control of dyslipidaemia in patients at high and very high cardiovas... more To analyse the treatment and control of dyslipidaemia in patients at high and very high cardiovascular risk being treated for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe. Data were assessed from the European Study on Cardiovascular Risk Prevention and Management in Usual Daily Practice (EURIKA, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00882336), which included a randomly sampled population of primary CVD prevention patients from 12 European countries (n = 7641). Patients' 10-year risk of CVD-related mortality was calculated using the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) algorithm, identifying 5019 patients at high cardiovascular risk (SCORE ≥5% and/or receiving lipid-lowering therapy), and 2970 patients at very high cardiovascular risk (SCORE ≥10% or with diabetes mellitus). Among high-risk individuals, 65.3% were receiving lipid-lowering therapy, and 61.3% of treated patients had uncontrolled low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels (≥2.5 mmol/L)....
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Papers by Joep Perk