Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention and Control

Abstract

The CVD (heart disease and stroke, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure) today are the cause of the greatest public health pandemic globally in the history of the world ever, with very high morbidity and death rate, and economical and social consequences. CVD are the number one killer and cause more than 50% of all deaths. CVD are a major cause of disability, health and human suffering. Social and economic losses are high and CVD cause 25-30% of all medical expenses. The risk factors for CVD are well known and largely preventable through health education and health promotion. The medical knowledge for effective prevention is available and health promotion programmes for prevention of CVD have a huge public health potential leading to increased productivity among the working age population, to improved functional capacity among elderly, to diminishing health inequalities, to a reduced needs for health and social services, and to an increased quality of life to everybody. The resources needed for CVD prevention and heart health promotion are modest in relation to the huge health service costs to society caused by CVD. There is a marked divergence between the advances in the expensive clinical medicine management and the much lower costs for prevention of the CVD. The output is a condensed informative, educative and action programme encompassing the following aspects of the CVD: epidemiology, social medicine, economics, information, clinical aspects, quantization, “home medicine”, research, and the future. There is a significant weakness and under-motivation of the CVD prevention in many countries. The action for CVD prevention should be comprehensive encompassing health education and health promotion activities toward healthy life styles, capacity building and strengthening, monitoring and evaluation of the policy and programme interventions impact, advancing public health policy, and engaging relevant stakeholders and sectors in partnerships in order to reverse the CVD epidemic.