ABSTRACT
The arguments relating to the economic cost of CHD prevention
stem largely from a failure to appreciate that many of the trials were
conducted in people whose CHD risk was relatively low. Often the
participants had only one relatively modest risk factor and frequently
were actually at less risk even than the general population. The
emphasis in this book, in agreement with that of all current official
recommendations, is that clinical intervention should be reserved for
people at substantially increased risk either by virtue of a truly high
level of cholesterol or blood pressure, or lower levels of these risk
factors in combination with established CHD, or with one or more
other risk factors for CHD. The cost of screening and intervention is
then much cheaper than the enormous cost of CHD (see page 2).
