Cardiovascular secondary prevention: patients' knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors and their attitude to reduce the risk burden, and the practice of family doctors. The "Help Your Heart Stay Young" study.

Fighting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors is one of the critical aspects of CVD prevention1. American and European Scientific Societies and Health Organizations2-4 have developed recommendations and guidelines for CVD prevention, which should be used in clinical practice. Unfortunately, there is evidence that CVD secondary prevention does not achieve the expected targets5. The level of patients’ knowledge of their CVD risk factors is likely to be one of the factors that may significantly influence the outcome in secondary CVD. However, it is conceivable that subjects’ knowledge of CVD risk factors may be influenced by their interaction with the Health System and medical doctors. Italy has a State-based Health System in which citizens refer to general practitioners (family doctors-FDs) free of charge for the first