Misperception, misfearing, missed treatment, missed opportunities

Cardiovascular disease still represents the leading cause of death worldwide. Preventive measures are essential to avoid the burden of disease, saving lives and costs. However, the current prevalence of optimal management of cardiovascular risk factors is far from ideal. In the real world, physicians are not succeeding in convincing their patients to assume healthy behaviors. According to the health belief model theory, if a patient feels he/she is vulnerable to one condition, it enhances the chance that this patient will engage medical recommendations to avoid this condition. However, a couple of articles, evaluating individual perception of risk, show that, in fact, subjects, children and adults, usually have a misperception of risk, with an optimistic bias about their risk. Physicians are missing the opportunity to really prevent the burden of cardiovascular disease and it is time to explore patients' behavior deeply. In the office, physicians should dedicate time to apply in practice the components of the health belief model. If a patient is unaware about his/her actual risk, doctors should detail these risks, graduating severity and anticipating possible implications on the patient's cardiovascular health. Physicians should appraise the accuracy of the patients' perception of own risk and in case of underestimation, work on calibrating this perception. But physicians should go ahead, trying to empower and engage the patient and his/her family into the treatment plan. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.