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The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has issued 'Coronary Heart Disease
Statistics 2000', an annual compendium of coronary heart disease
(CHD) statistics for the United Kingdom. Some of the key facts are:
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of death in
the UK accounting for over 250,000 deaths a year: more than four
out of ten of all deaths. The main forms of CVD are coronary heart
disease (CHD) and stroke.
- About half of all deaths from CVD are from CHD and about a quarter
are from stroke. CVD is also the main cause of premature death:
approximately 40% of premature deaths in men and 30% of premature
deaths in women are from CVD.
- CHD by itself is the most common cause of death in the UK accounting
for over 135,000 deaths a year: approximately one in four deaths
in men and one in five deaths in women.
- CHD by itself is the most common cause of premature death in
the UK: 26% of premature deaths in men and 16% of premature deaths
in women are from CHD. Nearly all deaths from CHD are because
of a heart attack. Over 270,000 people in the UK suffer a heart
attack each year. About half are fatal. In about 30% of heart
attacks the patient dies before reaching hospital.
The good news is that Cardiovascular Disease is preventable, but
prevention should start as early as possible.
Independent Medical Services offers a Cardiovascular Disease Risk
Assessment that will give you an estimate of your risk of a heart
attack or stroke. Risk factors for CVD include high cholesterol
and blood pressure, smoking and lack of exercise. We can identify
people who have these risk factors and suggest sensible steps that
they can take to reduce their risk.
Each assessment takes between 20 and 30 minutes and will include
the following:
- Lifestyle and family history questionnaire
- Examination to measure height, weight and blood pressure
- Blood cholesterol and sugar measurement
We will use the information from the examination to calculate your
risks of heart attack, stroke and diabetes over the next ten years
using the QRISK and QDScore algorithms and we will write to you
with your results and our recommendations.
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