High cholesterol: policy context

Most policy in the NHS in Scotland refers to diseases and services. There is no specific policy on high cholesterol as such, but there is strategy on coronary heart disease and stroke. See  Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan 2009. This recognises raised cholesterol as a risk factor and recommend its identification in the population and appropriate management and treatment.

In terms of policy relating to cholesterol in particular, there are targets for general practice in relation to managing raised cholesterol in people with known cardiovascular disease and diabetes. For more detail for Scotland, see the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), and the subsequent Revision to the GMS contract 2006/07 - Delivering Investment in General Practice - Scottish Guidance (1.2MB).

In addition, policy regarding clinical intervention in high cholesterol is described in SIGN guidelines on coronary heart disease and stroke. Specific guidelines on the prevention of cardiovascular disease give further explanation on the thresholds used to define 'raised cholesterol' (See Risk estimation and the prevention of cardiovascular disease (771KB)).