Health Affairs on Cardiovascular Disease

The latest issue of Health Affairs includes a feature article on policy recommendations to reduce cardiovascular disease in the developing world:

A global CVD epidemic is rapidly evolving, and the burden of disease is shifting. Three times as many deaths from CVD now occur in developing countries as compared with developed countries. The economic and social costs of this burden will be great, particularly because many developing nations are still grappling with poverty-related diseases such as malnutrition, infectious diseases, and poor health care facilities. However, a broad range of individual- and population-based strategies exists at affordable prices and, if implemented, could reduce the burden of CVD disease by more than half. Reductions in tobacco use should be the cornerstone of these interventions. Simultaneously, efforts can be adopted to prevent the further development of CVD risk factors. These interventions are often less expensive per capita but often do not yield the benefits until much later. The interventions that are most cost-effective target those who are at highest risk for death, such as those with advanced disease or overall high risk for CVD.