Recent data suggests that more than four million Australians are living with cardiovascular disease (CVD), which represents 16.6% of the population. According to the Heart Foundation, CVD is a leading cause of death across the globe. In Australia, it represents one in four of all adult deaths, claiming the life of one person every 13 minutes.

There are numerous challenges in the care and management of CVD. A key issue is the prevalence of comorbidities, which challenges clinical care and is associated with worse health outcomes.

“We know that people with comorbidities, compared to people without comorbidities, experience a decreased quality of life. They access healthcare services more often, which includes hospitalisation,” says Natalie Raffoul, clinical pharmacist and risk reduction manager at the Heart Foundation.

“They are also at increased risk of mortality. We know that chromic heart disease is the single biggest cause of death in Australia,” she says.

“Globally, evidence suggests that over the last few decades there’s been an increased trend in the burden of comorbidities. A growing number of people have chronic comorbid conditions and this has a lot to do with the ageing population.”

Being aware of risk factors

Comorbid conditions are very common in patients with CVD. Moreover, comorbidity is much higher among the older population (65+) with 80% of this cohort having three or more chronic conditions.

Some of the most common cardiovascular comorbidities include hypertension, ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation (flutter) and stroke.

Among the most prevalent non-cardiovascular comorbidities are diabetes, COPD and chronic kidney disease.

Ms Raffoul explains, “It’s important to recognise that the most common types of overlapping comorbidities with CVD are other diseases that share the same pathophysiology for their condition.

Things like chronic kidney disease, diabetes and CVD, which covers multiple types of cardiac diseases, all share the same risk factors. Some would argue that cancer also shares many of the same risk factors as well.

“The only way to prevent other related conditions or comorbidities is to tackle the risk factors. We need to take a holistic approach in addressing these risk factors.

“We know that cardiometabolic risk factors are related to many of the common cardiovascular comorbidities, so there’s blood pressure, cholesterol levels and obesity. You also have lifestyle related factors, such as food, physical inactivity and smoking. Then there are other factors such as mental illness. While we’re unsure how this affects chronic disease, we know it plays a role somewhere along the line.

Media Contact
John Mathews
Journal Manager
Current Trends in Cardiology
Email: cardiologyres@eclinicalsci.com