Governmental efforts for cardiovascular disease prevention efforts in the Russian Federation

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability in Russia as is case with the most other countries of the world, although Russia has unique features and demographic trends. In the late 90's and early 2000's Russia has sustained a profound demographical crisis with a period of overmortality but since 2003 the mortality rates are declining. By 2013, the birth rates exceeded mortality. The reversal of the demographic crisis took place on the background of a number of comprehensive governmental efforts with focus on non-communicable diseases prevention. The National Priority Project "Health" implied enhancement of primary care along with improving availability of state-of-art care for CVD patients. The most notable activities in the field of preventive medicine were the launch of Health Centers for universal free-of-charge screening for risk factors and for preventive counseling and the Dispanserization program (a large scale health screening aiming on detection of both people with chronic conditions and of high-risk persons).