Targeted prevention of lifestyle related diseases in the primary care sector – results from the TOF pilot project

This abstract reports on the results of a non-randomized pilot study carried out to test the acceptability, feasibility and short-term effects of a healthcare intervention in primary care. The intervention is designed to systematically identify persons at risk of developing lifestyle-related disease or who engage in health-risk behavior, and provide targeted and coherent preventive services to these individuals. The consequences of lifestyle-related disease represent a major challenge for the individual as well as for society at large. In order to address this problem, increased disease prevention and health promotion is required. This has been attempted in past efforts by offering individual preventive health checks to the general population. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach is mixed. Several systematic reviews, on the other hand, suggest that health checks targeting people at high risk of chronic lifestyle-related diseases may be more effective. The evidence on targeted and systematic screening of chronic disease is however very limited. To effectively target people at high risk of lifestyle-related disease, there is a substantial need to advance and implement evidence-based health strategies and interventions that facilitate the identification and management of people at high risk in the population.

The study population comprises 9400 patients registered to 47 general practitioners (GP) in two municipalities in the Region of Southern Denmark. The intervention takes a two-pronged approach, including both a joint and a targeted intervention. The former is directed at the entire population, while the latter specifically focuses on patients at high risk of a lifestyle-related disease and/or who engage in health-risk behavior. The intervention is facilitated by a digital support system. The pilot makes use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods.