Similarly, letters, editorials, and other publications that are not full-length clinical studies were not accepted as evidence. SRs must have searched MEDLINE or EMBASE for eligible publications, performed a risk of bias assessment of included studies, and assessed the quality of evidence using a recognizable rating system, such as GRADE or something compatible (e.g., the one used by the AHRQ Evidence- based Practice Centers). If an existing review did not assess the overall quality of the evidence, evidence from the review must be reported in a manner that allowed us to judge the overall risk of bias, consistency, directness, and precision of evidence. We did not use an existing review as evidence if we were not able to assess the overall quality of the evidence in the review. Intervention studies must assess pharmacologic or non-pharmacologic treatment or evaluated the variability of lipid levels over time, effectiveness of CVD risk screening, timing of repeat screening for CVD risk assessment, or risk stratification methods. See Key Question Specific Criteria for additional study designs. Study must have enrolled at least 20 patients (10 per study group) unless otherwise noted (see Key Question Specific Criteria). Study must have enrolled at least 85% of patients who meet the study population criteria: adults aged 18 years or older at risk for CVD. Study must have reported on at least one outcome of interest. b. Key Question Specific Criteria For KQ 1, SRs of RCTs or comparative observational studies and individual RCTs or comparative observational studies not included in SRs were required. For KQ 2, SRs of clinical or lab-based observational repeated measures studies, or individual studies of these designs not included in SRs were required. 