key to fighting cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) cause nearly four million deaths per year, and a third premature death in Europe. In recent years, experts have established these pathologies as reason for more morbidity and mortality in the European Union, and it is estimated that there are approximately 50 million people They live with cardiovascular diseases.

This represents a large financial burden associated with CVD. A recent report commissioned by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) estimates that these diseases represent a total cost 282 billion euros per year. Of these costs, €155 billion is in health and long-term care costs, €48 billion in lost productivity and €79 billion in informal care costs. Similarly, the health and social costs associated with cardiovascular disease are, on average, 11% of healthcare costs EU and 2% of EU GDP.

Health and social costs related to cardiovascular diseases account for an average of 11% of EU health expenditure.

One of the measures secondary prevention, that is, measures taken to prevent exacerbation of CVD in patients who already suffer from it are antihypertensive treatment, which consists of controlling high blood pressure, which is a risk factor. The text states that if 70% of people with cardiovascular disease who need antihypertensive treatment receive it and follow it correctly, they will be able to save 332 million euros direct health care costs over a 10-year period in Italy, Germany, Spain, France and England.

The EFPIA study also found that improvements in secondary prevention increased the number of patients achieving their goals. optimal levels recommended for each risk factor from 43% to 70% in the six regions analyzed: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Poland and the UK. Achieving such a rate increase could prevent 67,170 cardiovascular events (CV) deaths per year.

In particular, better treatment of hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes can prevent 671,700 events fatal cardiovascular disease in ten years, with diabetes being the risk factor that contributes most to this outcome. In turn, the study’s findings show how encouraging the 70% of heart disease patients who smoke to quit could prevent an additional 27,189 deaths per year. Thus, almost 95,000 fatal cardiovascular events per year could be prevented, representing an improvement in the cardiovascular disease situation. 5% mortality according to SSD. In ten years this could amount to almost one million deaths avoided cardiovascular diseases, showing the enormous potential impact of secondary prevention.

PREVENTION IN FOCUS

The fact that many risk factors for heart disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood glucose and smoking, can be reduced means that many cases are preventable. Although treatment is effective, delay in diagnosis negatively impacts treatment initiation, which has an obvious impact on the burden of cardiovascular disease.

It is especially important to diagnose and treat people with cardiovascular disease as early as possible to prevent complications. That’s why, investments with early detection there should be government attention hook. According to the previously cited report, it is likely that the most effective way to detect this disease is through cardiovascular health screenings performed in first aid.

Although our data do not allow definitive determination of the number of fatal cardiovascular events prevented by best secondary prevention across the EU, we can estimate that with better prevention, 81,035 deaths per year could be avoided in these six countries, which 19% less than the current number of deaths from cardiovascular disease.

There is a growing need for the EU to implement a comprehensive plan to tackle the problems caused by cardiovascular diseases.

However, within the European Union there are huge differences not only in treatment, but also in access and prevalence of risk factors. In this regard, it becomes increasingly necessary for the EU to implement comprehensive plan to solve problems caused by CVD. Creation of the European Alliance for Cardiovascular Health (EVERY), created by 17 European cardiovascular organizations, has played an important role in meeting this need. This made it possible to include the CVD in the program of the current Presidency of the Council EU troika (Spain-Belgium-Hungary) for the first time in the 30-year history of the EU.

However, despite the importance of international join forcesPlans also need to be implemented at national level in all Member States to ensure equal access to high levels of prevention and care throughout the region. In this context, Spain and Poland have already implemented a comprehensive cardiovascular health strategy to guarantee fair access prevention throughout the EU.

Spain and Poland have already implemented a comprehensive cardiovascular health strategy to ensure equitable access.

Another of the EFPIA recommendations to improve the situation in Europe is to improve Data collection among the population with cardiovascular diseases. The goal is to counter existing data gaps and fragmentation. The lack of comprehensive government-funded data and records prevents the government from understanding the gaps and impact of better rehabilitation. acute post-event cardiovascular diseases.

Likewise, as the federation recommends, to achieve improving the approach Promoting health services is also becoming a priority for change clinical practice and ensure patients achieve risk factor treatment goals.

Ultimately, European policymakers, together with industry players, professional health societies and CVD patient communities, must public private partnership generate knowledge and resources that will have an impact at local and EU level to reduce the incidence of these pathologies.