Talking about heart failure saves lives

By sensitizing and educating the population about the signs, symptoms and risk factors of heart failure, one of the leading causes of premature death in the world, deaths can be prevented. In May, the month of awareness of this heart syndrome, Cardioalianza patients join the international campaign “Let’s talk about heart failure and save lives”.

Cardioalianza, an entity that brings together 18 associations of cardiovascular patients, wants to point out with this campaign the importance of early detection and optimal treatment, which is associated with a better prognosis of heart failure and improving the quality of life of patients.

The initiative is focused on publication symptoms associates such as breathing difficulties, fatigue, swelling of the legs, ankles or feetdry cough, sudden weight gain or weight gain in a short period of time.

What is heart failure?

Heart failure is a chronic syndrome and the progressiveness of the heart which prevents it from having the necessary capacity to pump enough blood as the body needs to function properly.

This disease there is no curebut with early diagnosis i.a treatment and an adequate lifestyle can be controlled by improvement Quality of life and disease prognosis.

Despite his distribution (in Spain it is estimated that it affects more than 16% of the population over 75 years old), it is a syndrome unknown to a large part of the population, which is often mistakenly associated with old age, because pathology which usually manifests itself at this stage of life.

In fact, both the incidence and prevalence of heart failure doubles every decade after age 45, and it is currently estimated that 70% of admissions occur in patients over 70 years of age.

Patients with heart failure often have other medical comorbidities (respiratory disorders, kidney dysfunction, diabetes, etc.) that require a comprehensive care and multidisciplinary.

Despite therapeutic progress, many patients with heart failure have episodes of decompensation or deterioration symptoms, which imply frequent hospitalizations – it is the leading cause of hospitalization in patients over 65 years old – and represent a threat to the lives of the patients.

Thus, it is a syndrome with high associated costs: it represents 3% of all hospital admissions and 2% of the total health expenditure in Spain.

Cardioalianza points out “significant deficiencies in access to diagnosis, resulting in inequalities and delays in diagnosis and patient care”.

cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases are the main ones cause of death in the world and in Spain where they are responsible for 26.4% (119,196) of annual deaths.

More precisely, 17% (20,173) of deaths from cardiovascular diseases were caused by heart failure, which is one of the main causes early death worldwide which today affects more than 60 million people worldwide.