Cancer already kills twice as many people as cardiovascular diseases in rich countries, although globally it is the cardiac pathologies that cause the most deaths, according to a new report from the 'PURE' study, published in 'The Lancet' and presented recently in Congress the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
At work, 162,534 adults between 35 and 70 years old (58% women) in four high-income countries (Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates), 12 middle-income (Argentina, have been analyzed for about 9 years) Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Iran, Malaysia, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Turkey and South Africa) and five low-income (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe).
Thus, experts have proven that deaths related to cardiovascular disease were 2.5 times more common in adults living in poor countries, compared to those residing in rich states. In the researchers' opinion, this difference can be explained because these patients have a worse quality in medical care, since, as they have shown, the first hospitalization rates and the use of medications to treat cardiovascular diseases are substantially lower in the low and medium income regions.
“The world is witnessing a new epidemiological transition between the different categories of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), since cardiovascular disease is no longer the leading cause of death in rich countries,” said lead author Gilles Dagenais .