The number of  deaths from cardiovascular disease has almost halved in most of the countries in the European Union since 1980, according to a recent study in the European Heart Journal.

"For the most part and for most countries this is good news - the death rates have come down quite substantially in the last 30 years," said Nick Townsend of Britain's Oxford University, who worked on the study, quoted by Reuters.

According to estimations made by Romanian doctors earlier this year, heart disease is common in Romania and the number of Romanians suffering from the condition is nearly double the European average. "A recent study we conducted shows an incidence of 4.7 percent, which is enormous," said Ovidiu Chioncel, doctor at the CC Iliescu Institute in Bucharest. He also added that the mortality rate is high among patients with this condition.

Heart disease is still one of the leading causes of death in the EU and the rising rates of obesity and diabetes could start to reverse the progress made in the past 30 years.

Almost all EU countries had a significant decrease in death rates from heart disease over the last three decades, in both men and women. However, while Britain, Denmark, Malta, The Netherlands and Sweden had the largest declines in death rates for both sexes, in the case of Romanian men, there was a small but significant increase, shows the study.

According to Nick Townsend, quoted by Reuters, the progress was probably made due to better drugs, such as statins to treat high cholesterol and anti-hypertensives to treat high blood pressure, but also due to lower rates of smoking in the region.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)