Abstract
Following the European Summit on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, delegates attending the meeting agreed to the following call for action.
Objectives
To ensure optimal implementation of:
the European Heart Health Charter (EHHC)
the Guidelines of the 4th Joint European Task Force on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) prevention in clinical practice
To ensure equal access to efficient health care structures for CVD prevention and rehabilitation, adapted to individual CVD risk profiles, throughout Europe
All European countries are expected to have adopted and launched the EHHC by the end of 2008 and each European country will have a multidisciplinary alliance of health policy makers and representatives of scientific, professional and voluntary societies of agencies dedicated to CVD prevention by the end of 2010.
Committed multidisciplinary partners
A strong partnership of multidisciplinary societies oversees the development and implementation of prevention strategies across Europe. It includes the following professional health organisations:
European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
European Heart Network (EHN)
European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS)
European Society of Hypertension (ESH)
International Society of Behavioural Medicine (ISBM)
European Society of General Practice/Family Medicine (ESGP/FM - WONCA Europe)
European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD)
International Diabetes Federation Europe (IDF-Europe)
European Council for Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (ESC CCNAP)
European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR)
European Stroke Initiative (EUSI)
All of these partners have contributed to the writing of the 4th Joint European Guidelines on CVD Prevention in Clinical Practice and most of them are signatories of the European Heart Health Charter.
Call for action − 3 critical steps towards a heart healthy environment
Together, these partners are committed to pursuing the creation of a heart healthy environment in Europe through various
Each country will create a
develop a national strategy to encourage professionals and politicians to find incentives for local populations to make healthy choices (balanced diet, physical activity, avoidance of tobacco)
coordinate the implementation of the 4th Joint Task Force guidelines locally, taking into account specific cultural, socioeconomic and medical issues
recommend the use of management tools such as the HeartScore program and the Health Professional Toolkit
Education: educational programs in all schools throughout Europe should promote the integration of a healthy lifestyle (balanced diet, physical exercise, avoidance of tobacco)
Health Insurance: an adequate budget should be allocated to health education, preventive care and rehabilitation within national health services. Actions related to CVD prevention should be reimbursed within existing health insurance plans.
Primary Care: the contribution of primary care physicians to CVD prevention should be encouraged through the use of tools such as the HeartScore program and the Health Professional Toolkit
Hospitals: units treating patients with CVD should provide multidisciplinary prevention and rehabilitation services with particular attention to
smoking cessation
Healthy eating habits
adequate physical exercise
health education programs involving patients as well as their families
follow-up ensuring adherence to lifestyle changes and compliance with lifelong drug therapies
The national implementation of the EHHC and of the 4th JTF guidelines should be evaluated at regular intervals and should include:
definition of an evaluation base-line performed by the national multidisciplinary alliance
countries should be encouraged to keep registers of CVD morbidity and mortality
countries should survey CV risk factors (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, tobacco consumption) and total CV risk
Next meeting
Each year, a
The
Contacts
Sophie Squarta
European Coordinator for CVD Prevention
ESC/EACPR
Jacqueline Partarrieu
ESC Press & PR Officer