(Circulation. 1998;97:602-604.)
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular Specialty Societies and the Emerging Global Burden of Cardiovascular Disease
A Call to Action
Thomas A. Pearson, MD, PhD;
Sidney C. Smith, Jr, MD;
; Philip Poole-Wilson, MD
From the University of Rochester School of Medicine (T.A.P.), Rochester,
NY; University of North Carolina School of Medicine (S.C.S.), Chapel Hill, NC;
and National Heart and Lung Institute (P.P.-W.), London, England.
Key Words: cardiovascular diseases • prevention • mortality • risk factors
Recently available data on the
global burden of disease document, perhaps for the first time, that
cardiovascular disease (CVD) has achieved the dubious
status of the leading cause of death worldwide.1
Coronary heart disease and stroke have dominated the mortality
figures for Western Europe, North America, and Australia/New Zealand
for many decades, extending to Eastern Europe more recently. However,
the emergence of CVD as the major cause of death in the world's most
populous regions, such as China and India, along with falling death
rates from infectious and parasitic diseases in these countries are
clearly the reasons for the elevation of CVD as the leading cause of
death globally. Additional data from South and Central America, the
Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia confirm these trends.
Moreover, projections of mortality based on population increases
and increased life expectancy suggest that CVD will be the leading
cause of mortality in all parts of the world by the year 2020, with the
exception of sub-Saharan Africa.2 Some of us believe that
even these estimates may be optimistic, with additional CVD occurring
due to the increase in tobacco use, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and
an atherogenic diet in countries of increasing affluence; interaction
of these new risk factors with presently prevalent risk factors
such as hypertension; and the genetic predisposition of certain
subgroups (such as South Asians) to CVD when placed in industrial
societies.3 Indeed, conversations with colleagues from
far-flung corners of the globe confirm the rising numbers of patients
with coronary . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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