Estonia struggles with one of the EU’s worst heart health records

Estonia has one of the poorest cardiovascular health records in the European Union, with high rates of premature death and health loss, ERR reported. Cardiologists say the priorities should be reducing childhood overweight and controlling cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular diseases are Estonia’s most common chronic illnesses, leading cause of death and biggest cause of premature mortality.

“We know quite well why heart disease develops, unlike many other illnesses, and we have the tools to intervene. But those tools must be used consistently,” said Märt Elmet, head of the cardiologists’ society.

Elmet said cardiovascular disease is largely linked to lifestyle and that people can reduce their risks by changing their behaviour. However, he said Estonians’ health habits were closer to those of Eastern Europeans and that people did not take sufficient care of their health.

“Preventing diseases is many times cheaper than treating them afterwards, or putting out the fire. It is very expensive. Not only we, but other wealthy European countries cannot afford it financially, and we are needlessly losing people’s health,” Elmet said.

Cardiovascular diseases account for 25 percent of avoidable deaths in Europe, compared with 30 percent in Estonia, according to the report.

Cardiologist Alar Irs said reducing avoidable deaths would require urgent action on the rapidly growing problem of childhood overweight. In 2001, seven percent of teenagers were overweight. Two decades later, the figure had risen to 20 percent.

“Whatever we can come up with to make youth overweight and insufficient physical activity less of a problem than they are now, we must do it,” Irs said.

He said another priority was identifying and helping people at risk of cardiovascular disease. High blood pressure was the clearest target, he said, because those patients could already be identified using existing data.

“If we reach them, education and treatment can prevent them from suffering a heart attack or kidney damage as a complication of high blood pressure,” Irs said.

Authorities will soon begin testing whether occupational health physicians can detect diseases earlier. A visit to an occupational health physician is the only compulsory medical appointment for many people.

Liis Kruus, head of the Health Insurance Fund’s primary care portfolio, said occupational health physicians would conduct tests, collect health information and assess whether a person faced an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease or already had an unmonitored condition. They would then prepare a prevention plan, provide advice and document the patient’s condition more thoroughly than at present.

Family doctors will remain responsible for monitoring patients’ health. An average of 270,000 people with high blood pressure visit a doctor each year, with treatment costs of nearly 36 million euros. Diseases of the circulatory system cost the Health Insurance Fund an average of 203 million euros annually.