IRELAND: All European countries are showing a reduction in cardiac deaths, although there are substantial variations between countries, a major EU health conference in Cork heard yesterday.
Dr Emer Shelley, national heart health adviser with the Department of Health and Children, outlined the current trends in cardiovascular disease to the conference.
In the case of the Republic, the percentage of deaths from heart disease has dropped from 50 per cent of all deaths in 1980 to 41 per cent in 2000. However, the EU average for coronary heart disease death rates will change from May 1st following the entry of the 10 new accession states, she said. Noting that even as mortality rates decrease, the burden of heart disease can increase because of the longer duration of illness, Dr Shelley said a major challenge for all EU countries was to provide treatment services to meet this need.
"There is a need for comparable morbidity data across the EU," she told delegates from both member and accession states at the "Promoting Heart Health" conference in Cork.
Prof Daan Kromhoit of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands, described the results of a 25-year study into factors associated with cardiovascular health and disease.
"Difference in coronary heart disease death rates can almost completely be explained by differences in diet and cigarette smoking," he said, before concluding that, before the age of 70, coronary heart disease is a largely preventable disease in those who follow a moderately healthy lifestyle.
Prof Guy de Backer of the department of public health at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, described the latest European guidelines on the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Based on 12 studies of over 200,000 people, the resulting risk prediction system can be tailored to individual European states. The system is based on coloured grids which incorporate measurements of blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking status, tailored for age bands for each sex.
"Our main task now is to disseminate these guidelines to doctors and patients," he said.
As delegates discussed the issues raised in greater detail, a pattern of agreement on individual risk factor levels began to emerge in the later conference sessions. They are scheduled to have a closed meeting this morning after which a pan-European consensus on the prevention of heart disease should emerge.
Exhorting all delegates to be part of the process, Prof John Martin, professor of cardiovascular medicine at University College Hospital London said: "This is the first time in the history of both old and new Europe for such a meeting to take place. Be part of a pan-European process and let us have a real debate".