Policy Brief on Cardiovascular Disease

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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