Developing a questionnaire on the knowledge and perceptions of people working with vascular ageing

Objective: Vascular ageing (VA) is an emerging cardiovascular disease risk predictor, and an appealing therapeutic target, however, it remains underused in clinical practice. We aimed to create a questionnaire to investigate awareness and perceptions of healthcare providers and people working in the feld of VA. Methods: An online qualitative questionnaire with open-ended questions was developed based on key questions that were identifed by an expert working group in the Network for Research in Vascular Ageing (VascAgeNet) COST Action/CA18216. The questionnaire was distributed to participants working in the feld of VA. The questions were intentionally left open-ended to assess knowledge and perceptions, without guiding answers. Results: Out of the 127 responses, 104 questionnaires were complete. The mean age of participants was 42.5±10.5 years, 60.6% male, 54.8% were academics and/or researchers, 14.4% clinical doctors, and 9.6% worked in the industry. 67.3% reported that VA is important to them. For an explanation of importance, 14.4% reported personal/research interest, and 46.2% reported a combination of the following: improved primary prevention-CV risk evaluation/treatment strategies, marker of overall health, and underlying cause of diseases. 16.4% and 53.9% reported using VA measurements in clinical practice and research, respectively. Amongst the most frequently reported limiting factors were time, lack of reimbursement of tests, cost of equipment, and lack of guidelines for VA measurements. Conclusion: Regardless of occupation and specialty, the overall perceptions of participants were positive. Future work will investigate why, despite the positive perceptions regarding VA measurements, the use of VA measures in clinical practice remains low