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Cancer surpasses CVD as No. 1 cause of death in 12 European nations
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Cancer, not CVD, is now the main cause of death in 12 European countries, but inequalities in the number of CVD deaths still exist in Europe, researchers reported in the European Heart Journal.
In Europe (defined as the 53 member states of the WHO European region), more than 4 million people die of CVD each year, according to Nick Townsend, PhD, senior researcher at the BHF Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention at the University of Oxford, and colleagues. However, because of improvements in prevention and treatment, CVD has decreased in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom, making cancer the leading cause of death among men in those countries. In Denmark and Israel, more women die of cancer than CVD.
According to the American Heart Association, among other sources, CVD remains the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, but some experts have said it may be overtaken by cancer in several years.
Wide inequalities
In 2011, in France, 92,375 men died from cancer and 64,659 died from CVD. Among men in Spain in 2013, 67,711 cancer deaths were recorded compared with 53,487 deaths from CVD, the researchers wrote.
“These figures highlight the wide inequalities between European countries in deaths from CVD. The 12 countries in which cancer has overtaken CVD as the main cause of death are all found in Western Europe, with nine of them having been members of the EU before 2004,” Townsend said in a press release. “The highest numbers of deaths from CVD tend to be seen in Eastern European countries.”
Measurements of age standardized death rates and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYS) also highlighted the inequalities between Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
Age-standardized death rates from CVD were higher in Kyrgyzstan (1,444 per 100,000 men and 1,087 per 100,000 women) compared with France (275 per 100,000 men and 174 per 100,000 women) and the United Kingdom (334 per 100,000 men and 228 per 100,000 women), the researchers wrote.
In addition, the number of DALYS lost to CVD in 2012 were the highest in Ukraine (194 per 1,000 people), Russian (181 per 1,000), Bulgaria (167 per 1,000), Belarus (163 per 1,000) and Latvia (153 per 1,000), and lowest in Luxembourg (39 per 1,000), Cyprus (37 per 1,000), Ireland (35 per 1,000), Iceland (32 per 1,000) and Israel (26 per 1,000).
More research required
“We need more research into why some countries are showing improved outcomes, while others are not,” Townsend said. “Improved data need to be collected in all countries in order to make comparisons on deaths and suffering from CVD between countries so that health professionals and national governments can target interventions more effectively to reduce inequalities.”
Monitoring and surveillance are needed, he said in the release.
“In particular, we need better figures on the numbers of new cases and the numbers of people living with CVD across Europe, as well as better data on the hidden burden of CVD — CVD that has not been identified by health services or included in national statistics. This would be invaluable to people working in public health, to help us identify problem areas and design better prevention and treatment strategies,” Townsend said. – by Tracey Romero
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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