Research Datasets held by the Discipline of General Practice, NUI Galway

Study Number (SN): 0047-00

 

Study Name: Secondary Prevention of Heart Disease in General Practice (SPHERE), 2003 - 2008

Aim of original study

The aim of the study is to design, implement and test an intervention to improve the process of care and objective clinical outcomes for patients with established coronary heart disease in primary care in Ireland. This project was funded by a five-year Health Research Board programme grant.

Number of patients: 903

Data collection period

The study began in 2003 and ended in 2008 – intervention lasted for eighteen months.

Key variables

  • Primary outcomes include:
    • Blood pressure; 
    • Total cholesterol; 
    • Physical and mental status as measured by the SF-12; 
    • Hospital re-admissions.
  • Secondary outcomes include:
    • Measure of the process of care: Health service usage; Recording of risk factors in GP records; 
    • Body Mass Index/Waist-Hip Ratio; 
    • Exercise >15mins 3 times per week (current or planned);
    • Smoking status;
    • Diet: portions of fresh fruit and vegetables; 
    • Adherence to medication (Medication Adherence Report Scale MARS-5).
  • Other variable types
    • Cardiovascular medication prescribing;
    • Cardiovascular history;
    • Multi-morbidities;
    • Family history premature cardiovascular mortality;
    • Spending on behaviours influencing cardiovascular risk factors.

Key outputs to date:

  • Murphy AW, Cupples ME, Smith S, Byrne M, Byrne MC, Newell J. Secondary prevention of heart disease in general practice: a cluster randomised controlled trial of tailored practice and patient care plans. British Medical Journal 2009; 339:b4220 doi:10.1136/bmj.b4220.
  • Byrne M, Cupples M, Smith S, Leathem C, Corrigan M, Byrne MC, Murphy AW. Development of a complex intervention for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in primary care using the UK Medical Research Council framework. American Journal of Managed Care 2006; 12:261-266
  • Murphy AW, Cupples ME, Smith SM, Byrne M, Leathem C, Byrne MC. The SPHERE Study. Secondary prevention of heart disease in general practice: protocol of a randomised controlled trial of tailored practice and patient care plans with parallel qualitative, economic and policy analyses. [ISRCTN24081411]. Current Controlled Trials in Cardiovascular Medicine 2005. Jul 29;6(1):11

Funding agency

This project was funded by a five-year Health Research Board programme grant.

Data access

Data is available in SPSS format. 

To access the data, please complete a ISSDA Data Request Form for Research Purposes - Pseudonymised Datasets sign it, and send it to ISSDA by email.

For teaching purposes, please complete the ISSDA Data Request Form for Teaching Purposes - Pseudonymised Datasets, and follow the procedures, as above. This covers sharing of data with students in a classroom situation. Teaching requests are approved on a once-off module/workshop basis. Subsequent occurances of the module/workshop require a new application. If students will subsequently using data for projects/assignments they must submit their own request form for Research Purposes. Please contact us if you have any queries.

Data will be disseminated on receipt of a fully completed, signed form. Incomplete or unsigned forms will be returned to the data requester for completion.

 

Documentation

Links

For a list of Health related datasets click here.

Tools