At the end of August 2022, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) experts for the first time presented a version of the recommendations for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases for patients. This document is based on the ESC Professional Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases, 2021 version. The published document explains how the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years is determined, how to make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk, what treatment may be needed according to the current level of risk.
The President of the European Society of Cardiology Stephan Achenbach noted that the main goal of the published recommendations is to create conditions for patients to actively participate in making decisions about their treatment, which will contribute to their better compliance. This type of advice is a new kind of health literacy that informs patients and complements the important work already being done by National Cardiac Societies and patient organizations.
The published guidelines summarize 12 main directions that patients should follow for the purpose of primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Separately, it is emphasized that, regardless of the level of cardiovascular risk, all patients need to: stopping smoking, following to a healthy lifestyle, which means proper nutrition, weight control and physical activity, achieving a systolic blood pressure of at least < 160 mmHg.
The patient version of the CVD Prevention Guidelines contains information on physical activity, diet, purpose of prescribed medications, lipid profile monitoring, and the importance of taking hypoglycemic therapy. An example of the calculation of total cardiovascular risk is given in the appendix of the published document.
A similar document for patients on the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure for patients was published in May this year. Consequently, it can aid patients in the understanding of the whole process they are going through and provides enough information to encourage patients to take part in shared decision-making.
