Cardiovascular risk factors in Croatia: struggling to provide the evidence for developing policy recommendations

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.208

BMJ 2005;331:208-210 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.208

Education and debate

Cardiovascular risk factors in Croatia: struggling to provide the evidence for developing policy recommendations

Josipa Kern, professor of medical informatics¹, Marija Strnad, associate professor of epidemiology², Tanja Coric, epidemiologist, Social Medicine Service², Silvije Vuletic, professor emeritus³

¹ Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Zagreb University School of Medicine, Rockefellerova 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, ² Croatian Public Health Institute, Rockefellerova 7, 10000 Zagreb, ³ Zagreb University School of Medicine, Zagreb

Correspondence to: J Kern jkern@snz.hr

Reliable epidemiological data on cardiovascular risk factorsin Croatia have been lacking. This new study identifies targetsfor interventions

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in most Europeantransitional countries.¹ Among these countries, standardisedmortality from cardiovascular disease is highest in Hungary(508 per 100 000 population) and Croatia (500/100 000) and lowestin Slovenia (295/100 000) and central European countries (238/100000). In Croatia, cardiovascular disease is the leading causeof death and accounts for more than half the overall mortality.¹Furthermore, cardiovascular mortality has been constantly risingsince the 1970s.

Tackling the problem

Until recently, no reliable epidemiological data were availableon the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in the Croatianpopulation. The existing studies only comprised small unrepresentativesamples and provided conflicting results. Hence, there was noevidence base for developing policy on reducing the burden ofcardiovascular disease in the future and recommending interventionsfor people with cardiovascular risk factors.^2
3

In collaboration with the Canadian Society for InternationalHealth, we conducted the Croatian adult health survey . . . [Full text of this article]

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Policy recommendations and implementation

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