%0 Journal Article %T Clinical Gaze in Risk-Factor Haze: Swedish GPs¡¯ Perceptions of Prescribing Cardiovascular Preventive Drugs %A Josabeth Hultberg %A Carl Edvard Rudebeck %J International Journal of Family Medicine %D 2012 %I Hindawi Publishing Corporation %R 10.1155/2012/612572 %X Aims. To explore general practitioners¡¯ (GPs¡¯) descriptions of their thoughts and action when prescribing cardiovascular preventive drugs. Methods. Qualitative content analysis of transcribed group interviews with 14 participants from two primary health care centres in the southeast of Sweden. Results. GPs¡¯ prescribing of cardiovascular preventive drugs, from their own descriptions, involved ¡°the patient as calculated¡± and ¡°the inclination to prescribe,¡± which were negotiated in the interaction with ¡°the patient in front of me.¡± In situations with high cardiovascular risk, the GPs reported a tendency to adopt a directive consultation style. In situations with low cardiovascular risk and great uncertainty about the net benefit of preventive drugs, the GPs described a preference for an informed patient choice. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that GPs mainly involve patients at low and uncertain risk of cardiovascular disease in treatment decisions, whereas patient involvement tends to decrease when GPs judge the cardiovascular risk as high. Our findings may serve as a memento for clinicians, and we suggest them to be considered in training in communication skills. 1. Introduction General practitioners are heavily involved in considering and prescribing cardiovascular preventive drugs and maintaining their increasing use [1]. Numerous trials have shown indisputable effects of cardiovascular preventive drugs [2]. How to apply these findings in clinical medicine remains an issue of controversy. Proponents of increased drug use calculate on reduced cardiovascular mortality whereas sceptics fear a threat to public health and to the sustainability of health care by introducing preventive drug treatment to large proportions of healthy populations [3, 4]. A Swedish survey showed that between 1980 and 2000, the number of people who stated that they had a chronic disease almost doubled. This was parallel to an increase in preventive drug utilisation, inferring that people comprehend the preventive medication as a treatment for disease [5]. There is a movement towards increased patient participation in health-care decisions in practice and in the legislation of many countries including Sweden [6]. Governments, health-care organisations and insurance companies have a common interest in public health and costeffectiveness in prescribing. Guidelines aim to implement evidence-based prescribing [7] and rational drug use [8] but are supported by drug trials largely sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry [9]. Demands on GPs¡¯ prescribing are thus numerous, %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfm/2012/612572/