ESC PRESS STATEMENT: Increase in CV risk factors heralds epidemic of cardiovascular disease 

“Over the next few years it's likely that this observed decline in the proportion of people with low cardiovascular risks will translate into increased cardiovascular disease,” said Professor De Backer, a former chair of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Joint Prevention Committee. “This paper should  act as a wake-up call in Europe as well as the US, since overall European risk factors are not so different. While obesity may be higher in the US, Europe has been less successful in reducing smoking  and cutting blood pressure.”

Indeed, the EuroAspire survey(2), which reviewed risk factors in patients with established coronary heart disease from 22 European countries, found that only 6 % of men and 4 % women were achieving lifestyle, risk factor and therapeutic targets for prevention.

“Health surveillance is essential for the development of good health policy. We need to know exactly what are the problems we are facing to determine the best ways of counteracting them,” said Professor De Backer.

Commenting last week at  the  EuroHeart Conference (Brussels, Belgium Thursday September 10, 2009), a meeting organised by the  European Heart Network and the ESC  as part of Work Package 5 of the EuroHeart Project,  Professor De Backer said that it is a major issue that no overall surveillance initiatives have been put in place in Europe to review changing trends in cardiovascular risk factors  for the general European population.“While different countries may be running their own initiatives there needs to be a standardised approach to allow meaningful comparisons, and enable countries to learn from each other” said Professor De Backer, adding that the European Union needs to be taking a greater lead in advising its member states on cardiovascular disease prevention.

Professor Torben Jorgensen, an ESC Spokesperson on prevention from the Research Centre for Prevention (Glostrup. Denmark), said that the study by Earl S Ford and colleagues in  Circulation  indicated that the current strategy  of targeting individuals at high risk of heart disease for prevention was not working.

“Evidence suggests that you can get people to change their attitudes for short periods, but that this is not long enough to prevent obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure,” he said. “Instead society as a whole needs to foster a general environment which encourages healthy eating and physical activity, including adaptations to towns and cities that favour pedestrians and cyclists. Such initiatives should start in schools and the work place, and will require good collaboration between politicians and doctors for success.”

Evidence, he added, shows that just small life-style changes made in society as a whole have a  tremendous impact on obesity and diabetes. “Our present unlucky situation is due to changes in society that have occurred  over the past decades – so future “medicine” must look into improving society's infrastructure,” he said.