Cardiovascular prevention needs to be promoted – even aggressively, says Milicic

Croatia is working intensively on a national cardiology plan. “We are trying to be quite active and I hope that in a year we’ll have a comprehensive CVD national plan,” announced Davor Milicic, President of the Croatian Society of Cardiology, at the European Cardiology Conference, organised by the Healthcare Daily. Meanwhile they are taking a series of steps to improve the cardiovascular health of the population. Milicic spoke, among other things, about the need for education, early detection of patients or cooperation with state public health institutions and private entities.

“We are still among the high-risk EU countries regarding cardiovascular health, but our cardiovascular mortality is convincingly decreasing,” Milicic presented, adding that while a decade ago the mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases in Croatia was more than 50 percent, in 2021 its share in the total mortality rate was a much lower 36.4 percent. “Of course, we are trying to be even better in the upcoming years than we have been so far,” he added.

One of the programmes currently aimed at improving cardiovascular health in Croatia is the national screening to detect familial hypercholesterolaemia. “We screen pre-school children on systemic exam and then perform a rehearsal cascade screening of their families. This should improve not only the detection of people with this disease, but we could raise awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and early detection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, not just LDL cholesterol,” Milicic explained at the conference. He added that according to the results so far, 3 percent of Croatian preschool children have cholesterol above 6, i.e. high, and are thus potential patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia.

The second project running in the coastal country is a campaign to reduce salt intake. “We have discovered that the average salt intake of Croatians is between 10 and 12 grams per day, and our goal is to keep it below 5 grams,” Milicic declared. To this end, the cardiology society is cooperating with both food producers and the media. “And there is already a success, as several food companies have dramatically reduced the salt content in their products, by up to 30 percent or even more,” he continued.

It is the cooperation with the media that Milicic considers essential, as it helps them to reach the public. “We have to do this because cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths. We have to be present in public life and continuously, sometimes even aggressively, promote cardiovascular prevention and fight for the implementation of the latest treatments to keep up with contemporary science,” he explained. In addition to the media, the Croatian Society of Cardiology has also established cooperation with the Croatian Society for Hypertension and the Croatian League for Hypertension. The Croatian Heart House Foundation, which was established by the Cardiological Society, is also active in the country. Milicic also described as very influential a special internet platform that offers the public verified information on healthy lifestyle and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

In addition, Croatia has recently started training nurses specialised in cardiology. “We are building a framework of cardiovascular nurses and have constructed an educational curriculum for them. So far, we have missed that profile to unify our efforts in reducing cardiovascular, particularly premature deaths,” he highlighted the contribution of the medical staff.

Filip Krumphanzl