Global progress against cardiovascular disease is stagnating while deaths have soared by 60 percent in the last three decades, a May 20 World Heart Federation report found.
The surge in deaths is partially due to aging and growing populations; however, high-income countries are seeing a decline in deaths. According to the report, 4 in 5 cardiovascular deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
"There are, however, baseline approaches that every country should implement to lay the foundation from which to build tailored activities to tackle cardiovascular diseases," the report said. "This includes implementing major policy initiatives that are essential to improving CVD health … [and] requires adequately funding health systems and initiatives so that all communities can access the care they need."
The report offered five recommendations to reduce deaths across all countries:
- Countries and stakeholders should improve data for cardiovascular deaths and their risk factors.
- Countries should ensure their health expenditure is at least 5 percent of GDP.
- Countries should implement policies to combat cardiovascular disease and ensure their implementation is adequately resourced and monitored.
- Countries should prioritize prevention and management of disease.
- Lessons learned in prevention, management and improving access to care need to be shared to address inequities.