The burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors: A current problem

The pandemic of COVID-19, which in Poland raised all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) death rates by over 15% only in 2020, naturally decreased the attention to the prevention of CVD. Nevertheless, the reports on the characteristics of COVID-19 patients and especially on factors related to the severe or fatal outcome of the disease included information on more frequent CVD risk factors and atherosclerotic CVD. This article reviews the evidence on the exposure to CVD risk factors in the Polish adult population and discusses evidence on the associations between CVD risk factors and COVID-19. CVD and CVD risk factors, obesity and diabetes, in particular, are related to the severe course or fatal outcome of COVID-19. High prevalence of CVD risk factors with an increasing prevalence of obesity and diabetes could make the Polish population more sensitive to COVID-19 incidence and put infected persons at higher risk of serious complications and fatal outcome. Likely, the increased number of CVD deaths observed during the pandemic could be explained partially by the high prevalence of CVD risk factors and atherosclerotic CVD, as well as by the direct cardiac complications of COVID-19, short-term higher risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke, and possibly by the underuse of lifesaving procedures in acute and chronic CVD.