Low Cost Interventions to Prevent Death from Cardiovascular Diseases Urged

Many Indians seem to die of cardiovascular diseases simply because they fail to take aspirin, it has been found.

Low-cost, effective treatments for the prevention of cardiovascular disease are rarely administered in rural India, where stroke and heart attack are the leading causes of death according to a new study.

Lead author, Dr Rohina Joshi from The George Institute says, "The key finding from this new analysis is that while many treatments for the prevention of cardiovascular disease are low-cost and effective, the uptake of these drugs has been limited in this rural area of India. There is a real opportunity for low-cost, simple and therefore appropriate interventions to help prevent cardiovascular disease in rural India."

Preventive therapies, such as aspirin have been proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, particularly among patients who have already experienced a heart attack or stroke. However, there are considerable treatment gaps in developing countries, where the use of such drugs could make a significant impact on the rising death rate.

"This reflects several barriers related to unavailability and unaffordability of preventive treatment as well as shortage of trained healthcare professionals in this rural region of India," added Dr Joshi.

More than half of all cardiovascular deaths occurred in patients under 70 years of age, which directly impacts a large number of main income-earners for families. The study shows that 41 per cent of all cardiovascular deaths in this rural area of India occurred under 65 years of age, compared to only 17 per cent in the same age group in the USA.

"As many deaths occur in a much younger age group compared with developed countries, cardiovascular disease is having a significant economic and social consequence among families, especially in rural India. This provides a significant opportunity for evidence-based, low-cost, simple interventions to make a major impact on a leading cause of death."

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This research is vital guidance for the development of appropriate models of care for other rural populations, as more than 70 per cent of the Indian population lives outside cities.

This study was completed as part of the Andhra Pradesh Rural Health Initiative (APRHI), which is collaboration between The George Institute and The University of Queensland in Australia, the Byrraju Foundation, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and the CARE Foundation in India. Since 2003, the APRHI group has worked to identify the main health problems in the region and to develop evidence-based methods of dealing with them.

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Source-Medindia
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