Policy Brief on Cardiovascular Disease

This policy brief provides an overview of the magnitude and context of cardiovascular disease, the mitigation strategies and their inefficiencies, as well as recommendations on what policy and decision-makers should do to address it.

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Policy Brief on Cardiovascular Disease
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Policy Brief on Cardiovascular Disease
Executive Summary
Cardiovascular diseases have been identified s one of the major issues of health concern
in the world. The disease has been causing a lot of social and economic challenges to individuals,
families, communities, and governments which have had to bear its costs. One thing that is,
however, known about the disease is that it is mainly behavioral. It is a lifestyle disease that is
linked to poor and unhealthy decisions that people do make such as smoking, physical inactivity
and poor eating habits. These are, however, problems that can be addressed if appropriate
measures are taken. This paper is a policy brief that gives a short, but comprehensive overview
of the magnitude and context of the cardiovascular disease, the mitigation strategies and their
inefficiencies, as well as the recommendations on what the policy and decision-makers should do
to ultimately-address it.
Context and Importance of the Problem
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to the ailment that affects the human heart. It
comprises of different diseases. Such illnesses are often identified by a wide range of signs and
symptoms which include shortness of the breath, chest pains, and pains in the legs, neck, back,
upper abdomen, throat, jaw, dizziness, racing heartbeat, fainting, and many others. CVD has
become an issue of concern because it has been causing a lot of problems to the people in
Australia and the world at large. It affects both men and women (Bauer, Briss, Goodman &
Bowman 2014). As already hinted, CVD is a lifestyle condition that mainly arises from the
behaviors that people do portray on daily basis. Research has established that the disease is
linked to different causes. Its causes include ischemic heart disease, ischemic stroke, atrial

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fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, aortic aneurysm, cardiomyopathy and myocarditis,
hypertensive heart disease, endocarditis and rheumatic heart disease. Other cause of CVDs
includes maternal, neonatal and nutritional disorders. It has been observed that prevalence of
CVDs is more in male as compared to the female.
In terms of prevalence, the disease has been discovered to be on the rise. Statistics
indicate that the global burden of CVDs is more and it is being increasing because of its complex
nature and multiple causes. In 2015, global death due to CVDs estimated to be 17921047,
9419637 and 8501409 for total population, males and females respectively in all the age group
people. Age standardised deaths due to CVDs were found to be 286, 242 and 335 per 100000
population in total population, female and male population respectively. Following are the
representative countries with lower level prevalence – Singapore, Japan, South Korea; middle
level prevalence –United States and United Arab Emirates; and highest-level prevalence – West
Africa, Iran, Oman. From 1990 – 2015, it has been estimated that there was no significant change
in the prevalence of CVDs. This might be due to the unavailability of the data.
The CVDs have been troubling people for many years. It is increasingly becoming a
threat because the human beings have been reluctant to change their lifestyles. This policy brief
is, therefore, useful because it will help in providing a long-term and ultimate solution for the
disease (O'Keefe, Bhatti, Patil, DiNicolantonio, Lucan & Lavie 2013). If its recommendations
are adopted, the brief will serve its purpose of helping in the reduction of the high prevalence of
CVDs. As it is today, the CVDs have become a threat to everyone because the kind of life that
people entertain makes them vulnerable. For example, today, people have become obsessed with
the fast foods because they are ready-to-eat time-saving products (Wang, Ouyang, Liu, Zhu,
Zhao, Bao & Hu 2014). At the same time, unlimited commitments have made it challenging for

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them to embrace physical exercises. Meaning, if these lifestyles are not changed, the prevalence
of CVDs will continue rising. Apart from reducing the prevalence of the disease, the policy brief
will help in minimizing the CVD-related deaths, as well as the economic burden that it poses on
the global community.
Critique of Policy Option
CVD is not anew disease because it has been there for many years. However, the disease
still persists and becomes more serious as times goes by. Since it is a global crisis, the fight
against the disease has been fought both at local, national, and international levels. This paper
focuses on the efforts so far made by the United Nations (UN). The Third Sustainable Global
Development (SGD) is the latest policy-framework that the UN has come up with to help in
addressing the problem. In this [policy, the organization plans to minimize the prevalence of the
CVDs by a third. Meaning, it does not plan to fully-eradicate, but simply to reduce its occurrence
by some extent. In its plan, the UN has committed itself to minimizing the rate of infection by a
third (Chigumete, Rath, Bosman & Srinivas 2016). This is quite dismal because it does not
realize that the remaining two-thirds also need to be salvaged.
As an international organization, the UN should have acknowledged that the CVDs have
been causing major threats to many countries especially the underdeveloped ones which have
become quite vulnerable due to a large section of the population whose social, economic,
behavioral, and environmental determinants put them at a disadvantaged position (Rath, Patnala,
Bosman & Srinivas 2016). The proposals so far made are not effective because they cannot help
in providing a permanent solution to the problem (Santulli 2013). The organization failed to
acknowledge that as the umbrella body, it should come up with short-term plans which can be

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addressed within the shortest time possible. SDG is not an original policy framework because it
is just a rebrand and labeling of the previous policy-frame works each of which have failed. Its
approach, scope, and strategies cannot be relied upon to eradicate the CVDs because they are
inefficient and ineffective (Nichols, Townsend, Scarborough & Rayner 2013).
Policy Recommendations
It is quite evident that the efforts so far made in the fight against the CVDs have not
yielded much fruit. That is why the prevalence rates of the disease have been on the rise.
Although it came up with the Third Sustainable Global Development (SGD), the UN has not
shown serious commitments in dealing with the infection (Chigumete, Rath, Bosman & Srinivas
2016). The plan to reduce the rate of infection by a mere third is a disservice to the global
population. In this regard, this brief recommends the following:
First, there should be CVS health promotion campaigns in each of the countries across
the world. The health promotion campaigns should be offered to individuals, families, and
communities because it can equip them with all; the necessary information they need to know
about CVDs, their causes, risk factors, prevention, management, and treatment. One of the most
important lessons that the people should be taught during such campaigns is the way they can
change their behaviors and refrain from lifestyles which make them vulnerable to CVDs (De
Souza, et al. 2015). Such behaviors include smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet. Instead,
the public should be encouraged to start using balanced diet and refrain from the foods
containing too much fat and calories like palm oil, coconut oil, full-fat dairy products, red meat,
chips, cookies, margarines, snacks, and deep-fried fast foods. When it comes to physical
inactivity, the public should be educated to spend some few minutes, at least, to help in

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improving the condition of their fitness. Physical exercise can also play a significant role in
improving the body weight and making it fit and safe (Nishimura, et al. 2014). At the same time,
the campaigns should be focused on teaching the public on issues to do with sleep and stress
management. They can also be of great contribution when it comes to the management and
prevention of CVDs.
Secondly and lastly, all the countries should be committed towards the creation of health
equity and equality and equity within their borders. As already highlighted, the CVDs are
skewed and unevenly distributed in the world. The prevalence of the diseases is determined by
the social, economic, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence the health of people.
However, since these determinants vary from one place to another, the disease has to be more
prevalent amongst the underprivileged than the advantaged sections of the population. Hence, the
best thing to do to address the problem is to promote health equality and equity. Meaning,
everyone should have an unrestricted access to cardiovascular services (Nichols, Townsend,
Scarborough & Rayner 2014). To achieve this, the government should construct enough
cardiovascular services and evenly distribute them to all the corners of the country. In addition to
this, the government should empower the poor people by providing them with subsidies or
offering them free CVD services whenever they need them. At the same time, the government
needs to hire enough VCVDs specialists and provide them with the necessary training and
support that they need at all times (Fahed, Gelb, Seidman & Seidman 2013). If this is done as
recommended, the cases of CVDs will have to tremendously decline since everyone will have
been empowered to access CVD services like screening which means a lot to their health.

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References
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O'Keefe, J.H., Bhatti, S.K., Patil, H.R., DiNicolantonio, J.J., Lucan, S.C. & Lavie, C.J., 2013.
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