Cardiovascular disease: an economical perspective

Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases represent a relevant problem worldwide. Data from World Health Organization(W.H.O.) demonstrate that they are one of the principle causes of death: the 30% of all the losses of human life in theworld are due to heart diseases. Such a data bury a substantial economic cost considering both the direct component, firstof all the national health expense, and the indirect part, such as absenteeism rate, productivity loss, quality of life and,more generally, social costs. The future scenario pictured by the W.H.O. reveals a negative trend due to an increasing inthe rate of morbidity and mortality especially in the Emerging Countries. One of the solution to stem the costs – economicand not – connected to cardiovascular diseases is to empower the prevention activities overall the actions of primary prevention.This require a change in the traditional patient-physician relationship management model to get to an organizationalmodel centred on patient and based on a proactive approach. In this perspective in the paper will be analysed theprincipal changes happened in the Italian national healthcare system and in particular the strategic plans and actions intheme of cardiovascular prevention.