Zeitschrift für koronare Herzkrankheiten

Health Factors and Risk of All-Cause, Cardiovascular, and Coronary Heart Disease Mortality

Abstract

Ricardas Radisauskas

Despite recent declines in age-standardized death rates in high-income countries, Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVD), such as Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and stroke, and cancer remain the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States, most Western and Eastern countries, and the world. The decreases in CVD and other non-communicable disease mortality and morbidity can be linked to a variety of reasons, including improvements in modifiable risk factors. Recent findings from a number of studies have revealed the benefits of low levels of modifiable risk factors, also known as cardiovascular health factors, for all-cause mortality and CVD mortality or morbidity. Several studies, mainly in the US, have shown that alarmingly few adults participating in cohort studies achieved the favourable levels of all 7 most frequently measured CVD risk factors: physically activity, normal blood pressure, glucose and total cholesterol levels, body weight, and healthy diet.