Zagreb - Chairwoman of the parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Policy, Renata Sabljar-Dračevac, said on Thursday that cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death in the world, with 18.6 million people dying from them each year, and by the 2030s that number could grow to 23 million.
On the occasion of World Heart Day, observed on 29 September, the president of the Croatian Cardiology Society Davor Miličić said that arterial hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and blood fat disorders influence the accelerated development of atherosclerosis, which is responsible for myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral vascular diseases.
Nearly 23,000 persons died of cardiovascular diseases in Croatia last year, making up almost 37% of all deaths, according to data released by the Croatian Heart Foundation House.
Ischemic heart disease accounted for 12.4% of the mortality and cerebrovascular diseases for 8%.
In the pre-pandemic year 2019, there were 22,020 deaths due to cardiovascular diseases, so the increase is worrying, said Ivana Portolan Pajić, head of the Primary Healthcare and Health Tourism Sector.
With a standardised death rate of 572.8 per 100,000 population, Croatia ranks among the countries with a higher mortality than the EU average of 367.6 per 100,000.
Mortality is 393.6 in Slovenia, 362.9 in Austria, 270.7 in Italy, and 714.8 in Hungary, said Ivana Brkić Biloš of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.
Frequency of hypertension increasing, salt intake should be reduced
Warning that hypertension is the main independent risk factor for cardiovascular mortality and chronic kidney disease, the president of the Croatian Society for Hypertension, Bojan Jelaković, noted that hypertension is often not recognised because it does not hurt, and people underestimate it.
In Croatia, the frequency of hypertension is increasing, it is now about eight percent higher than ten years ago.
The head of the Vuk Vrhovac University Clinic and president of the Croatian Society for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Dario Rahelić, warned about the estimate that there are more than half a million people with diabetes in Croatia, and only 330,000 of them are registered.
A public health drive in which members of parliament and staff had their arterial pressure and blood sugar measured, with the aim of raising citizens' awareness of the frequency of contracting and dying from cardiovascular diseases, was organised today by the parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Policy in cooperation with the Croatian League for Hypertension, the Croatian Society for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, and the Croatian Association of Diabetic Associations.