-
The Cardiovascular Health Strategy provides for fiscal measures to promote healthy eating and other prevention initiatives, but cardiologists warn that without the force of law or controls it can remain a “wet paper”
The Interterritorial Health Council approved this afternoon the Cardiovascular Health Strategy, the first comprehensive plan against the set of diseases that cause most deaths in Spain (it is the first cause, followed by tumors and infections and the second cause of hospitalization). The document aims to achieve a change in cardiovascular health through a comprehensive approachin which the prevention be one of the keys, given that according to the WHO, 80% of heart attacks and strokes can be avoided with healthy lifestyle habits that include a varied and balanced diet, physical exercise and the absence of tobacco or alcohol.
With respect to alcoholalthough in the past moderate consumption, for example, of a glass of wine with food, with a cardiovascular benefit, the Strategy establishes that, taking into account the data for and against moderate consumption, it is concluded that “the possible cardiovascular benefit is insufficient to compensate for mortality due to all the other causes associated with consumption” of alcohol. For this reason, it is committed to “collaborating with restaurant establishments” to promote a Mediterranean diet, as a model of heart-healthy eating, “not including alcohol consumption“However, Health has denied that it intends to ban wine or beer on the menus, as some media have reported.
Of course, the Strategy urges bars and restaurants to offer tap water to its customers – something that the recently approved waste law already contemplates – and advocates excluding processed products and alcohol, such as beer cans, from vending machines. As for the processed, also proposes “fiscal and price policies to promote healthy eating”, in which the intake of processed foods should be less than that of fresh products; as well as the “improvement of the advertising of unhealthy food and drinks” or the offer of meals in schools, hospitals and sports centers. Likewise, he is committed to promoting the physical activity in educational centers.
no coercive power
The document has been approved by the Institutional Committee formed by representatives of all communities and the scientific committee, which includes the main medical societies specialized in heart attacks and other diseases related to the cardiovascular system. The problem, according to the Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEQ), is that the Strategy has no coercive powersince it is not a law, and although it includes specific indicators, “it remains to be seen how they are implemented and who certifies that they have been carried out”, according to the president of the SEC, Dr. Julian Perez-Villacastinin statements to EL PERIÓDICO.
“The Strategy is phenomenal and is super necessary, especially the aspects related to prevention,” he points out, but at the same time warns that the background to this work, the Ischemic Heart Disease Plan, which was approved in 2011, “only a small part was carried out“. For this reason, it considers that the document, by not including effective compliance controls, can remain in “wet paper” and it is only the “tip of the iceberg” of the measures that could be implemented to improve cardiovascular health.
Something similar happened with the Mental Health Strategy, approved last December, which was born amid misgivings in the sector for not containing a budget to meet its objectives or a minimum ratio of professionals, waiting lists or number of beds.
Comprehensive vision
In any case, the Ministry of Health has reported that one of the strengths of the Cardiovascular Health Strategy is that it proposes addressing risk factors with a holistic view“through education, health promotion, early diagnosis, prevention and rehabilitation, incorporating knowledge management, research, technological innovation and bearing in mind the perspective of equity”.
Related news
The document focuses on four areas of action preferential: ischemic heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmias or sudden death and valvulopathies, with the aim of carrying out “early diagnosis and multidisciplinary care, coordinated and with care continuity”.
The latest data available on mortality due to cardiovascular diseases indicate that in 2020, despite the arrival of covid, 119,853 people died from this cause, which represented 24% of total deaths, ahead of deaths caused by tumors and infectious diseases.