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The global burden of cardiovascular disease in adults
Gideon Victor1, Kawkab Shishani2, Ercole Vellone3
1Nursing Science and Public Health Student, Tor-Vergata University of Rome, Italy; and Assistant Professor, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Insights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a growing global health challenge, causing significant mortality and disability. This review examines CVD burden, risk factors, and prevention strategies across WHO regions.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Cardiology
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading global cause of death and disability.
- Preventable risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity significantly contribute to the CVD burden.
- Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) highlight the substantial loss of productive years due to CVDs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and their risk factors in adults.
- To analyze regional variations in CVD burden and risk factors across World Health Organization (WHO) defined regions.
- To discuss emerging risk factors, prevention strategies, and resource allocation for cardiovascular health.
Main Methods:
- Review of global data on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence, mortality, and risk factors.
- Analysis of CVD burden stratified by demographics and geographical regions (WHO defined).
- Discussion of existing and emerging CVD risk factors and population-based prevention approaches.
Main Results:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent a major and increasing global health challenge.
- Significant variations exist in CVD burden and associated risk factors across different World Health Organization (WHO) regions.
- Key modifiable risk factors include hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity, smoking, and unhealthy diets.
Conclusions:
- Addressing the escalating burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) requires tailored, region-specific prevention strategies.
- Effective risk estimation and management of modifiable risk factors are crucial for mitigating CVDs.
- Further research and resource allocation are needed to tackle the global challenge of cardiovascular diseases.
Abstract:
The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in adults is increasing. Over the past several decades, CVDs have remained the leading cause of death worldwide. Among CVDs, most mortality estimates are attributed to heart attack and stroke. Another measure of CVDs is disability-adjusted life years, which is the sum of years of life lost and years lived with disability, and provides an index for an estimate of the total number of productive years lost. Therefore, CVDs pose a daunting public health challenge. Several well-known risk factors that substantially contribute to CVDs are preventable, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, air pollution, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, and unhealthy dietary intake. Risk estimation is the foundation of preventive cardiovascular health. CVDs risk calculators for clinical and public estimates are available for this purpose. However, the burden of CVDs and its risk factors vary greatly according to demographics and geographical regions. Therefore, this article describes the burden of CVDs and risk factors in adults according to the World Health Organization's defined regions. Furthermore, emerging CVDs risk factors, population-based prevention approaches, risk estimation calculators, preparation, and manpower issues are discussed.
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